


As the Gears Turn

by ky_jelly



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Action, Adventure, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, M/M, Magic, Mystery, Romance, Time Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-12
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-06 22:07:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 23,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6772132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ky_jelly/pseuds/ky_jelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake English is the son of Lord English and has a life of comfort and wealth promised to him by his birth. He has always longed for a true adventure and the adventure finds him in the form of two men from an unknown future trying to put a stop to world ending events.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. stopped clocks

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! My friends call me Kira or Ky. Depends on who you ask. I'm here today with a fantasy story for you. I will admit that the urge to write something like this did sort of come from reading another fic but I've been very careful about being original! Thank you for taking the time to read this and I'll do my best to keep up writing this to end. There will be scenes in this fic that come with descriptions of violence and mentions of blood. Please use caution as you move forward reading this. Big thanks to ChroniclerofEchoes for helping me fix my dumb mistakes. <3

‘ _I write this passage with a light heart and clear mind. During my escapades I had never expected that I’d chance to see things more extraordinary than I had ever dreamt of. Things that would make my dreary little past feel foreign and out of place in this bright future. The colours of this world are strange to me, a man who has not seen past a grayscaled city since I was born. The glamour of my hereditary title and glitz of the jewels promised to my position mean nothing compared to what I have found here. I know not where to begin my tale, so I shall begin where I think it best. A party celebrating my eighteenth birthday on the first of December. As per the usual I was in my room writing what this very journal shall lead you into. Thinking up wondrous tales of faraway lands and heroes to whom people praised and celebrated. If only I’d known then what I know now..._ ’

A young man sat in his room late one winter evening, hunched over a desk as someone knocked at his door. The room was dark, lit only by a flickering candle, struggling to stay alight in the pool of wax it had melted down into. The quivering light of the candle illuminated a young man hunched over a elaborately crafted desk covered in books and papers of all kinds. Around him crumpled pages cast long shadows along the ground giving life to false shadow creatures which the young man wrote of quickly. The sound of ticking and scratching filled the room as the knocking died, the man writing quickly as he filled with inspiration like none he’d ever felt before. His trance was broken as the door to the room was opened and light flooded in brightly from the hallway outside.

“By thunder what are you doing?!” the man moved a hand up to shield his bespectacled eyes from the flood of light. “You could very well knock first!”

“I did knock m’lord.” the intruder bowed her head quickly. “When you did not answer I thought perhaps you may be sleeping. His lordship instructed me to make sure that you were ready.” she added, not looking up. “Your birthday celebration is starting soon. The guests have already begun to arrive.”

“Oh.” The man twisted around to squint at the clock ticking away by his side. “I see the time. Well, let’s get on with it then.” he rose to his feet, leaving his pages on the desk for the ink to dry, quill laid over dried pages. “ _Ignicio._ ” the young man muttered with a snap of his fingers causing lights to come to life all around the room. “Inform my father I’ll be present shortly.” he smiled.

“Yes m’lord.”

“Please, I’ve asked you call me Jake. I’m no lord, not yet at least.” Jake smiled softly earning a repeat before the young woman left in a rush, closing the door behind her. Jake let out a simple sigh at this before moving to change his clothes and wash his hands of the ink which stained them. It took several minutes of scrubbing but he managed to get the worst of the black from his fingers. Inspecting them he frowned a bit, there was still some under his nails and in the grooves of his fingers. How had he gotten so much ink all over? He had no time to think on this as the clock across from him began to chime softly to remind him of the time. “Ah. Well, no one will notice I’m sure.” he nodded before pulling on his green coat.

He took another minute to inspect himself in the full body mirror next to his grand four poster bed. Black slacks and black shoes, gray waist coat, white shirt, and gold pocket watch tucked in carefully, green coat, gold cufflinks and green bow-tie. Giving his bow a good tug to make sure it was proper he moved from his room to the hall, muttering ‘ _noxio_ ’ to extinguish the lights as he closed the door.

The hallway itself was grand, white marble walls and pillars every five meters between wide looming windows that reached the ceiling decorated with green silk curtains. Across from the windows were large paintings of places and people, matching the size easily. The carpet itself was a warm cream color and stretched down the hall, shooting off seamlessly down adjacent halls. Every pillar had a warm white fire glowing from the torches set on each one. The fires provided enough heat to beat away the chill trying to crawl in from the snowy weather outside and enough light to illuminate every corner.

Jake paused to look out over the city from the hillside view of his home. It was snowing tonight. There weren’t many years where it didn’t snow on his birthday. “Always the same.” he let out a sigh then returned to walking. He’d walked these halls for so many years that he knew where he was going without looking. His eyes were on the paintings he passed and that was when he ran smack into someone. Bouncing back from the person he let out a gasp as he realized he was going to hit the ground but before he could, the person he’d slammed into grabbed hold of his wrist and yanked him upright. The pulling action sent Jake flush against the person and he could feel hard muscles under this person’s clothes. They appeared to be traveling clothes at that. Jake looked up at the person and rose an eyebrow. He had no idea who this man was. He was tall, very tall, with odd pointy shaded glasses on. From what Jake could see of this man’s face he was covered in freckles.

“Sorry about that.” He spoke, his voice a bit deeper than Jake expected for some reason and with an accent he wasn’t familiar with. For the moment they were connected Jake could feel something, it felt like loneliness of some kind. Was it from this man? Before Jake could really figure it out the man moved away from him to let him stand on his own

“Oh, no. I was the one not watching where I was going.” Jake apologized instead, pressing a hand to his chest. “Usually no one is here so I often space out.” he smiled.

“Ah, yeah. I got a bit lost.” the man admitted, putting his hands in his pockets.

“I can lead you back to the ballroom.” Jake moved around and offered for the man to lead first. It wasn't unusual for Jake to not be familiar with people in the house during parties of any kind. His father used them to entertain guests and make business deals under the guise of celebration. The man before Jake didn’t object to being showed where to go, and moved out in front of Jake before falling into step with him when he caught up. “What’s your name, sir?”

“My name is Dirk.” the man answered. “Dirk Strider. And you are?”

“Jake English.” Jake offered his hand to the man who took it with a hum. “What?”

“You’re a bit on the short side aren’t you?” Dirk raised a hand up to his own head to measure height.

“My mother wasn’t a very tall person. My father insists I’ll still grow but I’m eighteen tonight so I have my doubts.” Jake reached his free hand to the back of his head to scratch there. “I’m alright with this height. There are a great many things you can do when you’re smaller. People over look you more often this way.”

“Sounds like something someone sneaky would way.” Dirk mused, a light smirk showing on his face. "Usually when I meet shorter people they get upset about their height being brought up."

“You’re not wrong about that.” Jake let out a single loud laugh at that. “I’m not one much for the party scene however. I have to put on the show since I’m the guest of honor.” Jake shrugged a little. “Where are you from Dirk? Your accent is rather unusual.”

“Ironhall.” Dirk answered simply. “Out here on business. My boss happened across an invitation for this party. I have to admit I didn’t expect to get crashed into by the son of the Lord.”

“Stranger things have happened I’m sure.” Jake chuckled as they got closer to the ballroom. Smooth jazz music played from beyond the threshold covered in drapes and the sound of people chattering came up quickly. “Well, here we are. I have to go in another way, but perhaps we’ll find one another again in there.” Jake offered his hand once more. “See you around.”

“I imagine I will.” Dirk took the hand in a shake before entering the room.

Once Dirk was out of sight Jake made his way further along to meet with his father whom was speaking with a large boxy man about something or another. They stopped speaking as Jake got close. “Hello Mr. Cans.” Jake greeted the man who simply gave him a nod before leaving. “Sorry about being a spot late. Showed someone back to the ballroom who managed to get lost.”

“No trouble,” Jake’s father spoke reaching forward to push Jake’s hair back. “You didn’t do anything about this mess,” he sighed.

“Oh, right. Sorry.” Jake looked away in a random direction, happening to see a woman approaching. She wore a long sparking black dress that dragged along the floor, the lights from the torches accenting the green trims around the ends. “Hello Ms. Snow,” Jake greeted her.

“Jake.” She smiled, her red painted lips forming a smile before she produced water with a spell and used it to push Jake’s hair back. “There. Much better.”

“Thank you, Snow.” Jake’s father nodded before he went into the main room, everyone falling silent at the sight of him while the jazz slowed to a quieter song as he spoke. “Friends, neighbors, and partners, I thank you all for coming here tonight to celebrate my dear son’s birthday.” Jake’s father motioned for Jake to step forward and put an arm around his shoulders. “Today marks his coming into adulthood at long last and I can’t believe how time has flown. So let us drink, share stories, and eat! Please enjoy the night.” Jake’s father raised a glass he’d taken from a passing server and called for the toast to come to a close before taking a drink. Once he’d finished it he took one more to pass to Jake than another for himself. He turned to his son, hand moving to squeeze his shoulder. “Your mother would be so proud to see the man you’ve become.”

“I hope so.” Jake smiled into his glass.

“She would,” he assured his son before turning as Snow approached again.

“Sorry to bother you Lord English, but Crow has some important news.” Snow touched his shoulder lightly as she spoke low enough that only the three of them would hear.

“Understood.” He nodded before looking to Jake. “Go chat with some of the guests. I’ll return in time for the cake.” He smiled, giving Jake a pat before moving to take Snow’s arm in his and walking away. Jake gave a small shrug with a smile before turning away to look at the party room. People had returned to chatting away and some even began to dance as the music picked up a little.

Jake was wondering what he should do when he felt someone tap his shoulder, turning around he offered a smile to a young woman with black hair cut in a bob. She wore a lovely blue empire waist dress with a blue shawl pulled around her arms. “Jane, you look as lovely as ever!” Jake took her hand, kissing the top. “Are you alone here tonight?”

“My grandfather is somewhere in this mess. I suspect he’ll try to make the trumpet blow bubbles before the night is out.” Jane sighed and touched her returned hand to her face, wrapping the other around her middle. “At any rate, happy birthday. I hope you like the cake.”

“I’m sure I will.” Jake grinned. “Your baked goods are always marvelous.”

“You’re too kind.” Jane waved a hand to try and make him stop flattering her but let it drop.

“How about a dance for old time’s sake?” Jake offered his hand to her. She smiled and took his hand moving with him to the dancefloor. Jake left his glass on a table as they moved toward the center, catching everyone’s eye as they moved. After a small bow from the both of them they began to dance. The two moved so well together that the floor cleared to give them space. At the end of the song Jake managed one more twirl for Jane before they both let out a little laugh as the ballroom erupted into claps. “Thank you.” He reached back to scratch his head once again.

“You still haven’t lost your touch.” Jane chuckled moving around to stand with Jake by the drinks. “If it were old times I’d been swooning over you once more.”

“Now, now, you know I’d like to avoid having a certain someone mad at me.” Jake shook his head. “Nothing wrong with a bit of dancing between friends.”

“You are right.” Jane nodded sipping a glass. “So how comes your writing?” Jake rose his hand up to show the ink stains on his hands as an answer to her question. “They have made things called ‘pens’ now you know?” Jane chuckled.

“I know but something about writing with a quill is just so much better.” Jake shrugged a little as he got a drink to nurse. “It would be like asking you to use one of those newfangled automatic mixers for baking.”

“But I _have_ used them!” Jane laughed out. “I can get much more done now.”

“Well, shoot. You got me there then.” Jake pouted. “How has the bakery been doing?”

“Really well,” Jane looked up as bubbles began to pass by them. “We just got a request for a large order of cupcakes for a wedding. The couple wanted to try something different for their cake. So I’ve been working on that. I’ve thought of something along the lines of a cake of them? Still working out those details.”

Their chatter continued like this for some time until Jake spotted Dirk. He excused himself from Jane to walk over to Dirk. "So we meet again.” Jake smiled as he got close enough. Dirk hummed as he turned or he had thought it was Dirk. This man had shaded glasses as well but they were rounded and his hair was a little flatter. “I’m sorry. I thought you were someone else.” He bid the man farewell and walked around, looking for Dirk. In the end he took up looking over the ballroom from the second story of the room, sighing as he wondered if Dirk had gotten lost again somehow. The other man he’d mistaken for him was gone now too.

Jake wondered if maybe he had somehow imagined Dirk. The man had seemed so mysterious but at the same time very handsome though his face had been mostly covered. Jake let out another sigh and leaned heavily on the railing. He wondered if he had to leave due to work.

Jake pushed back from the railing at this and moved to sit outside on a balcony covered in the snow repelling torches so that guests could enjoy the sight of the city and snowfall. Jake was now leaning over this railing instead, looking bored as he watched the snowfall turn into a blizzard. His eyes began to trace along the familiar outline of his home when he noticed a pair of people in the snow. The place they were walking was odd and no one should have been there at this time. Frowning Jake left the balcony to go outside. He didn’t bother with a coat but did pause in the door to get a gun from the safe behind the painting there. Checking it over Jake stored put it away in his breast pocket then went out.

The music began to die down as Jake moved farther and farther away, following the fresh snow prints to an open window. The window was to his own room. His frown deepened as listen to the sound of shuffling coming from within. He pulled his gun out again, releasing the safety then slowly began to move up to look inside at whoever was rifling around in his room. The moment he showed his face he was met with a large fist and blacked out.

When he finally came to someone was over him trying to wake him up. He was still outside in the snow and the music was still going on in the distance. “Looks like you’re not dead. How many fingers do I have up?” a man asked, shoving his hand in Jake’s face.

“Three,” Jake muttered rubbing his face.

“I hope that’s because you lost your glasses,” the man said standing then helping Jake to his feet. He pressed something to Jake’s hands which upon inspection Jake discovered were his glasses. Putting them on Jake looked up at the man, realizing it was Dirk. “I came out for a smoke and saw you. Making snow angels?”

“Dirk!” Jake smiled until he remembered why he was actually in the snow. “Shit.” Jake hissed. He looked around for his gun, finding it not far from where he landed. He checked it again before he moved to climb into his room. The people who had been rummaging around were gone and his room was in shambles.

“Whoa, what happened?” Dirk questioned from the window.

“I suspect something has been stolen.” Jake frowned as he started to check his things. After a thorough check he couldn’t find anything missing. “Odd.” He folded his arms. “At any rate I have to alert the house guards. I suggest you come in before I do that. I wouldn’t want you getting mixed up in things.” Jake motioned for Dirk to climb in. Once he was inside he began to look around. “Aw,” Jake looked sadly at his papers, ink covering them and ruining what he had written. “My writing.”

“This is your room?”

“Yes.” Jake nodded.

“Does this clock run usually?” He pointed to the clock which had been left intact.

“Usually yes.” Jake tilted his head to one side and moved close to pull it open. Looking around he didn’t notice anything unusual but then he didn’t know anything about clocks.

“May I?” Dirk questioned as he motioned to himself. Jake nodded and moved out of the way to let the man inspect the clock before he pulled back. “Don’t see anything wrong with it but it seems like something sat here,” He pointed in at a small platform in the middle of the clock where a smooth groove sat in the center,” some kind of ball or something.”

“Now that you mention it...” Jake folded his arms. “There was a white ball there.” he frowned.

“Was it magic of some kind?”

“Not that I’m aware. I thought it was just something in there because of the Billiard Clocks we have all over the house.” Jake was thinking about them when Dirk questioned what he meant. “There are seventeen clocks in the house like this one with different colors and balls in them. This was the Cue Clock,” Jake motioned at it. “There rest are one through fifteen like in billiards and the last is the ‘Cue Stick Clock’ which the rest sync... to...” Jake’s eyes went wide before he ran out of the room and down the hall in the opposite direction he had gone for the party. Behind him Jake could hear Dirk following him.

Rushing into his father’s office Jake found it was just as messy as his room. “Oh no.” He ran over to the clock and looked inside. The pendulum was gone. “This is not good.”

“What’s going on?”

“Someone is running around the house stealing the set!” Jake said before he moved to his father's desk and began to ring the phones in the house until finally someone answered. “Someone is in the house tinkering with the Billiard Clocks! Check them all!” Jake shouted quickly but once he did the phone went dead and all the lights went off. “What?” Cold quickly began to settle in the house as the magic lights which provided heat were all dead. In the distance Jake could hear people beginning to panic in the ballroom. “Come with me. I have to take you back to the ballroom where you’ll be safe while we sort this out.” Jake motioned for Dirk to follow him.

“So this is how it starts.” Dirk muttered before he moved to Jake and pulled him back into the room, shutting the door. “Listen to me Jake English, stay in this room.” Dirk grabbed Jake’s shoulders and made him look at him.

“What?” Jake shook his head. “That’s **my** line! I know what I’m doing.” He rose up the gun in his hand to show it to Dirk.

“That gun won’t do anything for you.” Dirk shook his head. “Sorry to do this to you but you’ll be safer here.” Dirk touched the side of Jake’s neck with something cold. Suddenly there was a painful shock and Jake blacked out once more.

Jake woke again some time later to Snow shaking him awake. Making a sound as his head rolled he opened his eyes to look at her. “Snow?” he questioned earning a long sigh from her. “What happened?”

“You had me worried,” she said and stood back. “We managed to save three of the clocks from being tampered with because of your warning.” She folded her arms. “They still stole the rest but eight, five, and seven are safe.” She explained. “Two young men managed to get to seven and five before our men and fought off the thieves.”

“Thank goodness.” Jake let out a sigh and pushed himself to sit up. “Who were they?” She shook her head. “Where’s my father?”

“Speaking with those boys in the library,” Snow answered. With that Jake stood, rubbing the side of his neck then made his way toward the library in question. As he got closer he could hear speaking. “Hey.” He announced his entrance, laying eyes on Dirk and the other man from the party. “You two...” Jake pointed at Dirk, “What did you do to me?”

“Trust me when I say it was safer for you that I did that.” Dirk leaned back in his seat.

“Apparently, these two knew that this was going to happen.” Jake's father spoke and motioned to the two young men. “Care to retell your story?”

Dirk looked over at Jake before he spoke. Jake wasn’t sure but he was pretty sure that Dirk was looking him in the eye. It was impossible to tell under those strange shades of his. “We came here with a mission to stop the Midnight Crew from stealing the Billiard Cores,” Dirk started. “We heard from a reliable source that tonight they would make their move so we put ourselves in a position to stop them.”

“Who sent you?” Jake questioned as he moved closer.

“Timaeus Turntech.” Dirk answered simply and pulled out a small pass book with a ticking red and orange set of cogs.

Jake knew this name. Timaeus Turntech was the organization that operated outside of the laws of the general populace and were charged with keeping world devastating things from happening. They were the only people allowed to use time magic without earning the death sentence. They worked across all countries and could do anything to carry out their orders including but not limited to murder. Usually they came from times where the world had been thrown into such serious danger that the only thing to correct it was to go to the past and stop it from happening it all. “Clearly we failed a bit here. But without the three they missed they can’t do what they want.” Dirk looked away from Jake to his father. “Lord English, if you don’t mind can we stay here for the night while we investigate?”

Jake’s father let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck before nodding. “Yes. It’s my fault that this happened to begin with,” he admitted with a nod. “Do what you need. I’ll arrange rooms for you to use as yours until your investigation is over.”

“Thank you.” Dirk nodded as he stood.

“What names do we have to call you by?” Jake’s father questioned.

“Our names are Dirk and Dave Strider,” Dirk answered, motioning between himself and Dave before standing to go and shake Lord English’s hand. “Thank your for your cooperation.”

“Anything for Timaeus Turntech,” Jake’s father said with a forced smile. Shortly after the handmaid lead the pair out of the room and to the rooms they would be using, leaving Jake and his father alone. “This is too convenient.” He said and sat in the nearest chair.

“You think they’re fakes?” Jake questioned raising an eyebrow.

“It's possible,” Lord English said as he stared at a a bookshelf across from them. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know.” Jake shook his head. “That man, Dirk, I met him before. Ran into him in the hall not far from my room.” Jake folded his arms. “He didn’t seem horrible. I didn’t get any bad vibes from him. I don’t think that they’re fake but the idea of them coming back just for the Billiards seems iffy at that.”

“Well, if they ask for any help offer what you can.”

“Of course. I wouldn’t dream of defying Timaeus Turntech.” Jake shook his head. “Have the party guests been sent home?”

“No. They have no idea what happened. Let’s keep it quiet,” Lord English sighed and stood. “For now let’s return to the celebration. We’ll work out the details of things tomorrow when there’s light.” Jake agreed and walked with his father out to the ballroom once more, falling easily into happy conversation and enjoying the rest of the festivities.

When Jake returned to his room the maids had cleaned everything up but nothing could replace the lack of ticking in the room. Jake gave a heavy sigh as he stepped up to the clock and touched the still face of it. It fixed on 11:11 and Jake had to wonder if it was possible to make it tick without the Cue inside. He opened the case to move the pendulum then stood back as it moved but no sound came from the clock itself. He frowned, looking at the face as nothing moved. It was depressing that a sound he was so used to was gone, the silence in his room was unsettling and made him uneasy.

As these thoughts came to mind a knock sounded from his door. Looking around Jake wondered who would be bothering him at a time like this. Pulling his door open he was met face to face with Dirk. “Can I help you?”

“Here,” Dirk said as he held out a small bedside clock. “It’s not the same but it’ll help keep the time since that one is dead.”

“Oh.” Jake could faintly hear ticking from the small device. It wasn’t the same but it was better than nothing. “Thank you.” Jake smiled as he took the clock. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“What did you do to knock me out? Or no, I’d rather know why it had to be done at all.” Jake frowned a little as he turned the clock in his hands.

“Can’t say.” Dirk shrugged.

“Important Timaeus Turntech business?”

“Could be.” Dirk continued to evade giving direct answers. “How I knocked you out was with this though.” Dirk pulled a ring out of his pocket and showed it to Jake. “It’s a device capable to delivering a quick shock strong enough to knock a grown man out. I am sorry I had to use it. I had no time to sit and explain to you who I was.”

“I understand. I’m not mad. I’m just... confused.”

“It’ll probably stay that way to be honest.” Dirk gave another shrug. “Our organization operates in ways that leaves people confused so we don’t screw up time lines. Try not to let it worry you if you can’t make heads or tails of shit.”

“Well, thanks so much for being honest on that fact.” Jake’s shoulders slumped as he sighed. “Oh well, I’ll just have to suffer with the mystery.” Jake smiled. “Thank you for the clock. It’s a lovely device.”

“Dave made it.” Dirk shrugged once again. “It’s his hobby.”

“Seems rather fitting for someone who works with time.” Jake chuckled.

“Yeah.” Dirk nodded and with that they fell into an awkward silence. They stayed like this for a while before Dirk cleared his throat. “I’m going back. See you tomorrow Jake.” He gave a wave before walking away at long last. Jake returned the wave before closing his door and setting the clock on his nightstand. The ticking from this clock was not as loud as his old one but it would do. With that Jake changed from his suit and put on his pajamas before crawling into bed at long last.

When morning came Jake was reluctant to get out of bed. He knew that today was going to be somewhat troublesome. They needed to figure out what was going on with the clocks and what Timaeus Turntech wanted with them. They were certainly in no position to deny them at least. Jake let out a long sigh before he forced himself to get up at last. The party yesterday seemed so long ago now. He wouldn’t be able to complain that things were boring with the current situation on hand.

Dressing in a green shirt and brown slacks he made his way out of his room to the living room where he found his father reading the paper. “So,” he spoke as he came close," what’s next?”

“They haven’t said anything yet.” Lord English looked up over his paper. “I imagine that we’ll have our answers soon however.” Lord English nodded behind him as the two men approached.

“Good morning!” Jake smiled brightly with a wave. “Thank you for the table clock Dave,” he motioned to Dave who only shrugged.

“It was just something I had.” Dave shoved his hands into his pockets and moved around to look at the photos and paintings in the room.

“So, what is going to happen from here?” Jake questioned as he sat down, he’d eat in a bit. This was more important.

“We need to follow the Crew to take back the Billiard Gears,” Dirk began.

“Since you’re working to stop whatever the Crew is up to with them, can I ask what happens if they are allowed to continue?” Lord English questioned as he folded his paper up and set it aside.

“Even if we’re working to stop the events from taking place there’s no promise that it will be stopped.” Dirk shook his head. “We’re trying to stop something from happening while trying to establish a stable time loop.”

“Time loop?” Jake questioned.

“Making sure that events still happen in order for the future to still exist,” Dirk answered.

“So when you’re done here you’ll return to that future?” Jake questioned again.

“No,” Dave spoke up as he turned from the photo of Jake’s mother. “Since things are changing with us even being here if we return there we would run into versions of ourselves that never had to go back. When that happens there’s a Black Hole Effect and draws in both versions of ourselves which ends up with us being sucked in and thus no longer existing.”

“Are from really far in the future? Since I reckon if you’re not you have to be careful to avoid yourselves here, right?” Jake looked a little too excited about this conversation but it was amazing to hear them talk about time magic and rules. It wasn’t something he heard or read about in everyday life.

“Can’t answer that.” Dirk shook his head. “Anyway, back on what we need to do. What can you tell us off the Midnight Crew and where they operate from?”

“The Crew are thought to operate in the densest part of Vitro,” Lord English answered. “No one can say for sure.”

“Ballsy,” Dave noted. “Not many have it in them to work out of the Holy Land much less the Capital city. They’re already a day ahead of us by this point.”

“I can arrange for a carriage to take you to Vitro,” Lord English offered.

“That would be appreciated.” Dirk nodded. “We’ll also need a guide. As you’re the lord overseeing this city we couldn’t ask you to do such a thing, but perhaps Jake?”

“Me?” Jake rose an eyebrow. “I’ve only been to the city a few times. I’d be a terrible guide.” Jake waved his hands around.

“You should go with them,” Lord English cut in. “You can visit your grandmother and deliver a letter for me.”

“But...” Jake frowned. He didn’t mind leaving but being a guide to two very important people made it kind of scary.

“No buts. You will do as I say.” Lord English stood. “I’ll make the preparations so you may leave by noon. I suggest you ready yourself for travel, Jake.” With that said Lord English bowed his head to the time travelers and left.

Jake let out a sigh and leaned back in his seat with a heavy stare at the paper his father had left in the chair he had been in. Jake’s eyes flicked up to look at Dirk who was still standing, looking down at him. “So... Um.” Jake sat up. “Breakfast anyone? Or do future people not need food?”

“Is that a serious question?” Dave sounded unimpressed. “We’re still people.”

“Sorry.” Jake shrank back a little. “I didn’t mean to offend.”

“We’ll join you for breakfast.” Dirk decided to jump in to stop the conversation from going further. “Lead the way.” Dirk motioned for Jake to move. Once Jake got up and began to walk Dirk paused to mutter something to Dave, squeezing his arm a bit before he moved to follow Jake.

After eating Jake went to his room to pack away things that he wanted to take with him that the maids wouldn’t remember to pack for him. With a rucksack on the bed Jake tossed in his journals, ink, quills, and a few reference books he would like to have on hand for writing reasons, and the clock that had been given to him the night before. It might be useful for whatever reason. Before he moved to the door Jake went to his desk and pulled out a small gift-wrapped box. He turned it over in his hands before he let out a sigh and shoved it in his pocket. “Might as well,” he muttered then grabbed his bag and headed outside where Dirk, Dave, and his father were waiting for him.

“Sorry to make you wait!” Jake rushed over.

“You have to be more aware of time Jake,” Lord English scolded his son. This was their usual interaction. Jake would do something that wasn’t perfect and his father would berate him for it. Some days Lord English would be a kinder man and treat his son with love but most days he demanded that Jake be perfect in all forms. It was a bit frustrating for Jake if he was honest but he would never say it to his father’s face. The two of them only had one another after all. Jake was torn from his thoughts as his father passed him a letter. “When you get to the city look for Doc Scratch and give this to him.”

“Yes, father.” Jake nodded, taking the letter before moving his bag around to put it in. His gaze returned to his father with a smile on his lips. “Well, I’ll send you a letter once I’ve arrived at grandma’s.”

“Good, I’ll wait for your letter.” Lord English nodded. A true professional. Jake knew that the situation called for them to be serious but Jake sometimes wondered if his father was _too_ professional with his own son. Had he been this way with his mother too? Jake had been too young to remember much of her before she died. All he had were photos and stories from other people who worked for his father. Snow would tell him the most about her as they had been sisters but even she didn’t dive into the relationship between Jake’s parents. She stated that it was something Jake would learn better by asking his father. Jake couldn’t ask about it though. One reason was because he didn’t want to open an old wound by reminding his father about his wife, and another reason was because he was frankly scared of what kind of answer he would get.

“I wish you luck on your mission.” Lord English offered his hand to Dirk and Dave as a parting shake. “Perhaps we shall meet again.”

“Thanks, I doubt it but perhaps.” Dirk nodded before he and Dave climbed into the carriage and they were off. Jake watched out the window as they moved through the city. The trip to the capital city would already take some weeks. They would possibly arrive in time for the Holy Celebration at least. It would be nice to spend the day with his grandmother. She was the one person who Jake felt truly loved him no matter what he did. It was a bit sad to have such a thought but she was always there if she could help it. The only reason she hadn’t made it to his birthday party this year was due simply to work. She did send a lovely telegram though.

Jake’s thoughts were pulled from his grandmother when he noticed a familiar person coming into view. He knew that the carriage would take them past the Crocker Bakery. Knocking against the ceiling he called for the carriage to stop before looking to Dirk and Dave.

“I’ll be two minutes,” Jake assured his traveling companions before he jumped out to approach Jane who was setting up outside. “Jane!” He waved to her.

“Jake. Good day to you. What brings you to the shop today?” Jane smiled brightly to Jake, dusting her hands off on her apron.

“Heading out of town actually. Have to go to Vitro for a while. I don’t know when I’ll return.” Jake gave her a sad smile. “It could be months before I come back so wanted to give you your birthday gift a bit early if that’s alright.” Jake pulled the box from his pocket to pass to her.

“Oh Jake, you didn’t have to get me anything!” Jane waved her hands but Jake wouldn’t let her deny the gift and forced it into her hands. Jane let out a sigh. "Shall I open it now or wait for my birthday?”

“You can open it now.” Jake motioned for her to do so.

Jane turned the box over in her fingers before pulling on the blue ribbon to remove the paper and find a jewelry box. “If I didn’t know you any better I’d suspect a ring in here,” Jane laughed before opening the box. Inside was a set of droplet-shaped turquoise blue earrings set in gold. “Jake these are lovely! Are you sure you want me to have them?”

“Of course!” Jake grinned. “When I saw them I thought they matched your eyes and couldn’t help myself. There was a ring that also looked nice but you work with your hands a lot so this seemed more practical. They are right?”

“They are but I hope you realize how giving me a ring would have looked?” Jane gave Jake a smile caught between questioning and worry. When Jake didn’t seem to get it she sighed and explained,” A proposal, Jake.”

“Oh!” Jake smacked his forehead. “I’m sorry! You’re right.”

“It’s alright. We know better.” Jane placed a finger on her nose. “Thank you for the earrings, they are lovely.” She turned to the table behind her to carefully remove them from the box and put them on before storing the box in her apron. “I’ll cherish them.”

“I was right, they look great on you!” Jake looked rather pleased with himself. He and Jane stood there for a minute or so before Jane questioned when he was leaving. “Oh beans! I’m leaving now. I’m sorry. I’ll write!” Jake waved and rushed back to the carriage. “I’m so sorry chaps-”

“Ten minutes, twenty-five point twelve seconds.” Dave said snapping a pocket watch closed before placing it back in his waistcoat.

“Sorry.” Jake apologized again as he sat and they continued.

“Dave is a stickler for time.” Dirk commented. “Don’t mind him. Who was she? Girlfriend?”

“Jane? Oh no. Nothing like that. Just a friend. We tried going steady once but it didn’t really work out well between us but we managed to stay friends. I have no idea how long we’ll be gone so I wanted to make sure she got her birthday gift from me.”

“How noble,” Dave muttered sounding somewhat annoyed.

“Ignore him,” Dirk dismissed Dave.

“If you don’t mind my asking, you both go by Strider, is that a time agent thing or are you related?” Jake finally questioned as he sat back while the carriage moved out of the city.

“Brothers,” Dirk answered. “We have another older brother as well though he’s not around. Just Dave and I came back. We began our work in TT at the same time so it was easy getting partnered together.”

“TT? Oh! Timaeus Turntech? I guess that is a bit of a mouth full isn’t it?” Jake chuckled. “Well, now that I look at you, you do look similar. It should have been obvious but I didn’t want to assume.”

“Yeah well, assuming makes an ass out of you.” Dave crossed his legs and continued to watch outside. The carriage fell silent from there. Jake didn’t know what to do to strike up conversation and Dave seemed like he wanted to avoid any conversation that he could. Dirk on the other hand seemed to kind of be staring at Jake and it just made him uneasy.

After a bit of thinking on what he should do to pass the time he decided to pull out his journal and begin writing about what was going on. This wasn’t the most amazing adventure just yet but it already involved time travel and stolen family relics. He wondered if he would get to see more amazing things from here. As he wrote he paused, looking up to ask,” Is it alright if I write about what is going on?”

“Should be fine,” Dirk answered. “It could be useful someday to have something to fall back on if we need a refresher.” Jake couldn’t help but find it odd that time travelers would need any kind of refreshers. They knew the future and had a little leather wallet with a fancy set of magic cogs that granted them immunity no matter where they went.

Jake hummed to himself a little as he turned his eyes to the journal in his hands to start writing:

_Today I set forth from my home in Crescent on a journey with two unlikely companions to the Holy Land’s capital of Vitro. On our way there we shall pass through the border cities of Lapis and Lazuli. Despite them being two separate cities they are drawn together in such a way that makes the city a breathtaking sight to behold. The last I was there some three years ago I remember gold decorations and silvery windows adorned with blue gems of all shapes and sizes. I look forward to seeing it once again._

_I digress._

_Across from me sits a man of some mystery and wonder. He is a time agent working for Timaeus Turntech. The only organization in the world allowed to use time magic in order to go into the past to fix world-ending problems before they even happen. I actually had my doubts that such a thing as time magic could very well exist. I still have my doubts but something about this man, Dirk, makes me what to believe him. He and his brother, Dave, have something about them that tells me they are honest to Gods time travelers._

_So now I am with them in a carriage leaving to Vitro with a letter for Doc Scratch in my bag and a head full of questions. I don’t know where to start asking nor do I know what they can actually answer. It's possible that everything I want to know is off limits knowledge. Personal questions may be alright as they’ve already offered up information of having an older brother. It’s not exactly good etiquette to start with personal questions however. I fear that this may be a silent trip unless they feel the need to ask me questions. For now I will keep my thoughts here._

_Should I though? Dirk had said that going back on old information may be a good idea. I fail to see what my personal writing would yield in any situation. Oh well, I shall just have to wait and see._

His final thoughts written Jake fanned the ink to help it dry as he carefully put away his things. Once he had put the stopper back on the ink bottle Dave spoke up. “What’s the point of using a quill and ink? Pens exist in this era and are a lot more practical.”

“I just prefer it.” Jake gave a shrug. “I have no reason more than that. My mother would use them often I’m told. Something about how it felt more personal and thought out to write with pauses for ink.” Jake touched the face of his journal with a smile.

“She sounds like a lovely person,” Dirk spoke up next.

“She was.”

“Was?” Dave questioned.

“Yes. She died when I was still very young. I remember her face faintly and can sort of recall a lullaby but not much more than that. What I know of her is what others have told me. Snow is the one who told me the most, she is my mother’s sister, adopted but still counts.”

“What happened to her?” Dave questioned again and Jake couldn’t help finding irony in the fact that he had thought it rude to dive into personal questions then Dave was so willing to hit the ground running with them.

“She had a weak heart,” Jake explained a bit plainly. He didn’t really have any more details on her death. It made Jake uncomfortable that he couldn’t say anything more than that when asked about her death.

“Sorry about your loss.” Dirk decided to derail Dave drilling into Jake further. “We lost our parents early on as well. Dave was just born when they died. It was in an explosion.”

“Explosion?” Jake questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah. Don’t know when or where though. We used to, but when you join with TT important life events like that get wiped from your memory.” Dirk crossed his legs. “When we travel through time part of it has to do with a conscious and a subconscious pull. We have to be aware of where we are trying to go, but if there’s something else like the death of a loved one present, it can mess with the travel and send us to a place we weren’t supposed to go.”

“I didn’t know that.” Jake sat up a bit with interest. “So is time travel something you can do yourself or do you have to have someone else cast it?”

“Both,” Dirk answered. “Each generation there is a person in charge of spells used to send people to the past. We are trained in how to use a child spell that works with the main spell to send us to the past. To get it right we have to speak at the same time, right down to the millisecond.”

“Millisecond? I’m not familiar with that measure of time.”

“Normally you don’t see people measure in it because it’s a fraction of a second. Too quick for normal person to bother with, but for us it’s everything.” Dirk motioned between himself and Dave. “It’s like watching the clock time out, when you think it’s over because it changed to zero, but that’s not right, there’s still a chance you can finish it.” Dirk pulled out his pocket watch to show it to Jake.

Compared to other pocket watches Jake had seen this one was a bit more elaborate. It had the usual hands for minutes and hours but there was also the seconds and a smaller circle that spun faster then the seconds hand. There was also a small green glowing dot next to the the millisecond. “What’s the glowing dot?”

“It’s to let us know we’re on the right track.” Dirk snapped the watch closed and put it away. “But it’s not an exact measure. When it turns white we’ve accomplished our mission.”

“So it's connected to the future still?”

“Something like that.” Dirk shrugged. “We don’t know exactly how it works.”

“So,” Jake drew out before asking," does the time you came from stop existing when you fix this?”

“No.” Dirk shook his head. “It carries on, just without us. It’s a dead time line now. After we finish our work we won’t have that timeline to return to. So once we’re done we just... pick a place and live.” Dirk shrugged and sat back.

“That seems awfully tame for time agents.”

“Yeah well, we leave our friends, family, and time behind to go to the past and fix the future.” Dirk sat back. “Considering that we’ll never see them again I think it’s pretty fair.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Jake nodded as he thought about what he would do if he was offered the chance to go to the past to fix something horribly wrong but he would have to leave his life behind. “Well, I thank you for being here.”

Dave snorted at this before he said with a mocking voice. “Oh yeah, thanks for taking one for the team because people are fucking idiots.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to sound like that.” Jake bit his bottom lip.

“Dave, you don’t need to be an asshole.” Dirk frowned. “It’s not like it was his fault.” Dave folded his arms at this and just looked out the window.

The three fell silent there, the only sound coming from the outside as the horses pulled the cart along the dirt road toward Lazuli. Jake decided to begin writing again. This time it was his story rather than a day to day so it went into another journal he used for his tales. However as the light outside dimmed it became harder to write. “Do either of you mind if I make light?” Jake questioned.

“We don’t mind,” Dirk answered for them both before Dave could open his mouth. Jake nodded and moved his hands up to mutter a spell. Once done a small light, warm and bright, began to raise out of his hands. He watched it reaching up to tap it with his finger before it hit the ceiling of the carriage.

“There.” Jake smiled to the brothers before he began to write again. By the time they arrived at the city light from the morning sun could be seen on the horizon. The city was still dark however and a thick mist was still clinging to the ground, swirling as the carriage came to a stop outside of the inn. “Finally.” Jake let out a sigh before he got out, stretching his hands up high over his head. However before he could lower them Dirk wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him back inside just in time to avoid a dagger flying into the open door. “Cheese and fucking crackers!” Jake shouted as he looked at the knife.

“Stay in here,” Dirk muttered to him before he and Dave exited the carriage, closing the door behind them. Jake got up on his knees to look at the knife. He tapped against it softly before he pulled it out to look at it.

Jake’s attention was drawn to what was going on outside as he heard the sounds of a struggle and metal colliding with metal. It was hard to actually see anything though, the mist has turned into fog at this point, but he could make out some shadows. The shadows danced around wildly, one unknown slashing at another, the other ducking down to dodge before trying to throw their own attack form below. With that move sparks flew, lighting up the scene a little before the fighting pair vanished farther into the fog.

Jake wanted to get out to help somehow, however he wouldn’t have any idea what to do. The minutes ticked by and Jake wondered if he should get out to find out if they were alright. After a long bit of internal fighting Jake reached for the door to get out, however in that moment Dave was slammed back against the carriage with a grunt before a sword was suddenly pushed through him. “Oh Gods.” Jake covered his mouth as he moved back as far as he could from the blood.

The sword was yanked from Dave and Jake could hear him crumple to the ground outside. In a moment the door was ripped open and a woman with long raven black hair looked down at him with a wicked grin. Her lips were painted blue and she wore an eye patch over one of her eyes. “W-what do you want?”

“Got word that the son of Lord English would be arriving in town today and I’m glad it wasn’t a lie.” She pointed the bloody weapon at Jake, the tip catching his clothes. “I’ve been offered a lot of money to bring in your head,” the woman moved the sword back. “Nothing personal.” as she moved her hand down to attack Jake there was a bright flash of light and then she screamed, shrinking back from the doorway.

Jake slowly moved forward again to see what was going on. The woman was now standing hunched and holding her arm, or what was left of it. In front of Jake on the ground next to Dave was her severed arm still holding onto her sword. “How **dare** you?” she hissed at Dirk who was standing across from her, his own sword bloody and glowing a faint pink color.

“Nothing personal,” Dirk echoed and moved his weapon up to make a move to attack her again.

“Bastard,” the woman sneered before twisting her hand around to gather up the fog to hide her within it. “I won’t forget this! You better watch your back time agent! Vriska Serket repays her debts!” The last sentence sounded distant and by the time the mist settled again she was gone.

“W-what happened? Why did she-- Oh Gods Dave.” Jake crawled out of the carriage at last to pull Dave up to look at him however once Jake got a look at him his body shattered into shards like glass. Jake’s heart sank as he turned his eyes to Dirk. “He--”

“I’m fine,” Dave spoke up before jumping down from the top of the carriage.

“B-but you, then what--?” Jake stuttered as he looked up at Dirk.

“It was just an illusion,” Dirk offered his hand to Jake to pull him to his feet. “My specialty.” Once Jake was on his feet Dirk pulled out a handkerchief and cleaned his sword before he sheathed it. “We let her think she had the upper hand in hopes of her monologue-ing her buyer,” Dirk explained as he looked over Jake. “You don’t look hurt but I’ll ask anyway, are you okay?”

“I’m not hurt.” Jake was shaking though. That woman commanded the mist around them too well. She could have killed them all if she’d waited until all of them had gotten out of the carriage. Jake’s eyes turned to Dirk when the taller man placed a hand on his shoulder. “Try to relax. If you stress out too much you’ll just give yourself a headache,” Dirk tried to comfort him before he left his side to pick up Vriska’s arm. “We can look for someone in town who can use this to maybe tell us something about your attacker.” Dirk moved around to the back of the carriage to open a trunk and pull out a white shirt to wrap the arm up in.

“I doubt we’ll see her again while we’re here.” Dave picked up her weapon and looked it over. “She’ll have to go to Vitro or Ferrum Wood to get her arm replaced.”

“What makes you think she’s going to get it replaced?”

“That arm Dirk cut off wasn’t a normal arm.” Dave nodded to his brother as he shut the trunk, arm inside. “You can smell oil can’t you?” Now that Dave brought it up Jake could smell something like oil. “Her arm was already mechanical.”

“So then that blood...?” Jake looked at Dirk.

“Just oil.” Dirk moved over to show the kerchief to him. Jake took it in both hands and sniffed it before holding it up to try and get a good look at it in the hazy street light. “Let's head inside.”

“Oh! What about the driver?” Jake looked up. “We can’t leave him out here.”

“Jake, it’s a dummy.” Dirk shook his head. “They don’t need anything.”

“But...” Jake frowned.

“You’re really going to treat a dummy like it’s human?” Dave’s lips thinned into an unimpressed frown.

“Well, no, I just,” Jake let out a sigh before he passed back the kerchief to Dirk. “The inn is this way.” Jake pointed and lead the way to the only building on the street with the lights still on.

Inside was warm and smelt strongly of lilac and pine. It was a lovely little inn with a large fireplace in the common area and a breakfast area set off to the side, able to accommodate for a mildly large group of people. At the welcoming desk was an older woman sitting in a rocking chair listening to a man speak over the radio about the day’s events and how the weather was expected to remain nice. Her hands were busy knitting what looked like a scarf though the length was questionable as it vanished into a door leading to a back room. The woman didn’t seem to notice that they had entered so Jake cleared his throat. When she finally noticed them she moved her glasses down her nose to regard them then stood to move a book from a drawer to place it on the desk. “Names and duration of stay please,” she offered a pen to him.

Jake took the pen with a small frown before he began to write his name, he paused once he was done to look back at the brothers. “How long are we to be here? A night?”

“Make it two,” Dirk answered. “There are some things I want to look into here.” Jake nodded at his answer. “Just make it one room, we don’t need to be split up,” he added as Jake nodded again and continued to write. Once he was done he passed the pen and book back to the old woman.

She looked over the page carefully before tipping her glasses again to look at Jake. “Jacob English, son of Lord English is it?”

“Yes. I can offer proof if that’s what you need.”

“Nonsense.” The woman waved her hand dismissively before putting the book away. She dug around in the desk for a minute or two, checking keys as she pulled them up before tossing them on top, muttering that they weren't the right set. Finally she pulled out a silver key and passed it to Jake. “The room is on the top floor, end of the hall.” Jake thanked her before he set on his way to the stairs with Dirk and Dave in tow.

Once they reached the room Jake pushed the door open to large room. The front part of the room was a seating area with a warmly lit fireplace and tea already set out. The back half of the room was separated by screens which the ends of the beds could be seen from the door. Jake let out a sigh and went to sit, removing his coat before he relaxed. “There’s a washroom as well.” He motioned toward a door to the left as he sat up to pour himself a drink.

“You’re familiar with this inn?” Dirk asked while Dave walked around the room checking things.

“Yes. Whenever my father and I travel together we stay that this inn. It’s run very well though it’s been some years since I’ve been here. I was maybe twelve the last time I was here.” Jake moved to sip his tea but Dave stopped him. He pulled out small vial from his sleeve and dropped a clear liquid into the cup to watch it. After a few seconds Dave went back to walking the room. “What was that?”

“Checking for poison,” Dirk answered simply. “You were just attacked out in the middle of the street. Someone apparently wants you dead. It’s pretty reasonable to check for poison after an attack like that.”

Jake hummed drawing the conclusion he no longer wanted the tea and he set his cup down. “So. What will happen now? Does this change anything?”

“No.” Dirk shook his head. “We still need to go to Virto to try and find the Gears.” Dirk moved to sit across from Jake. “However the attempt on your life proves that whoever wanted them is aware that you can track them down.”

“Um, excuse me, you make it sound as if I’m more than just a guide...”

“Is that a problem?”

“No, of course not. I just... I don’t actually know what you mean by ‘track them down.’ I don’t have any special magic if that’s what you mean.” Jake shook his head.

“You do, but you don’t know it.” Dirk looked up at Dave as he gave a thumbs up. “But we’ll worry about that when we get to the city. For now you just need to be careful. You’re familiar with handling a gun right? Do you have one on you?”

“I am but I don’t have one. I didn’t think I was going to need such a thing.” Jake grimaced. He didn’t like the way this trip was going already. He thought it would just be a long awkward ride of him trying to make conversation with time agents but no, he had a target painted on his back.

“We’ll have to get you one come morning.” Dirk stood. “I’m going to wash up if that’s fine with you. Dave will keep an eye on you.”

“By all means.” Jake motioned for Dirk to do as he wished, watching him leave before he turned his eyes to Dave. “Are you alright?” Dave was busy picking through old papers, pausing to look up at Jake with a hum. “I mean, you were um...” Jake motioned oddly to his chest.

“That wasn’t real,” Dave dismissed.

“But your body hit the carriage, you shook the whole thing. That wasn’t fake,” Jake insisted.

“Listen,” Dave picked up a paper that had been the news for today before moving to take the seat Dirk had been in,” I don’t claim to know how it works but making fakes is what Dirk’s specialty magic does.” Dave shrugged. “Mine is minor time manipulation. Speeding up things or slowing them down by seconds. So a fraction of a second to me can be as long as a minute.” Dave flipped through the pages. “So when my body hit the carriage I tagged out with a clone in a second and hid up top.”

Jake stared at Dave, not really too convinced. “I thought that the only time magic allowed was the type that Timaeus Turntech sanctified.”

Dave let out a long and annoyed sigh as he moved his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I’m not hopping back in time by hours or jumping into the future by years. I’m expanding a second of time into a longer measure of time for myself.” Dave lowered his hand. “It’s an advantage in life and death situations like that one. Would you have preferred I didn’t use my Gods given gift and just let her stick me like a pig?”

“Of course not!” Jake said quickly as he sat up. “I just find it odd that time magic can be a specialty at all.”

“It’s not like its major magic.” Dave began to read his paper.

“So, about your double...”

“You are just full of fucking questions aren’t you?”

“It's just really fascinating!”

“I will give you one more question. Ask whatever you want, I will answer and then I’m going to read this and you are going to shut up.” Dave stared across to him, lips in a thin line clearly not happy.

“Okay. Um,” Jake thought for a minute or two before he spoke next," was that double in any way, real? When I touched you, it, er...anyway. Yes. When I touched it he was warm and I felt real weight.”

“Yes.” Dave turned the page.

“Yes, what?”

“I never said I would expand on the question. Now, shut up.” Dave looked at him again before he focused on reading. Jake stared at him for a while, he tried to figure out what these brothers really were. Well, other than the obvious. They seemed rather young for being time travelers, but at the same time they were really powerful weren’t they? Dirk could make doppelgangers and Dave could manipulate time around himself.

Parts of the explanation felt as if they had holes in them but Jake had no way to prove it. Instead he had to accept that this was truth. He looked back to his tea cup, concentrating on it hard. When Jake had run into Dirk was it really an accident? Had he been there to catch Jake for some reason? He’d also found Jake in the snow after he’d been knocked out, then he knocked him out again during the blackout. That blackout, why did it happen?

There were a lot of questions rattling around in his head but the loudest was the question of how he could be any use to these men from the future. Surely they knew how things would go or they wouldn’t be here, right? What was the point of a guide or of having someone who could track down the gears when they should have the information already on hand? The more Jake pondered this question the less sense it made. He wasn’t stupid, not in this case, there had to be something they weren’t telling him. Well, something else that they really should tell him.

“If you glare at the cup any harder it’s going to shatter.” Dirk’s voice rattled Jake from his thoughts suddenly. Dave was gone to the washroom and instead Jake was sitting across from Dirk. He was in different clothes but the only other proof that Dirk had washed at all was his damp hair.

“I wasn’t glaring,” Jake insisted. “I was thinking.”

“Remind me not to have you look at me like that when you’re thinking.”

“I tried to ask Dave about how your copy worked.” Jake would just go to the source here. “I asked if they were real in some way and all I got was a ‘yes.’ Could you explain further?”

“The copy was as much Dave as the one you spoke with,” Dirk started," but at the same time he was fake. He’s was a splinter.”

“Splinter?” Jake asked after Dirk paused for a while after the phrase.

“A time splinter. When Dave moved in his extended second he left behind an imprint of himself that hadn’t quite kept up with him.” Dirk poured himself some tea to drink. “I used the imprint to make a copy of Dave and in that moment the shadow of Dave moving through time turned into a real person.”

“So, Dave did die.” Jake didn’t know how to take this information.

“The imprints are hollow. They have memories of only a minute between being created and dying. If they last longer than a minute they turn into dummies, sort of. They’re not really good for anything more than a distraction,” Dirk explained. “Don’t worry about the copy. It did what it was supposed to.” Dirk offered as a comfort before he drank the tea.

Well, that answer felt a bit better explained but that was just one thing solved. There was still the manner of what they really needed Jake for but Jake would leave that for the next day. He was too tired to press for information tonight, not when he knew he’d be met with words of dismissal and being told that it was classified information. What had he gotten himself into now?

Jake stood from the sofa and moved to one of the beds in the back, kicking off his shoes before he simply collapsed into the bed. Once he situated himself comfortably he passed out. They weren't done with their trip just yet, the longest part was ahead of them.


	2. nothing makes sense

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't edited this as much as I should have. I got about a third of the way through with rereading it to edit it but my mom is doing a bang up joke of making me feel like a shit human being so I'm just going to put this out here and edit it later. Sorry to you guys who are reading this early. I just can't muster the energy I need to actually edit shit. Also a friend of mine drew some art of the first chapter for me! [Please check it out!](http://crabxlord.tumblr.com/post/144357924928/okay-so-i-drew-a-thing-for-xxkirahoshi-because)

_I think I shall begin to explain what some things are in our world. Most of this is common knowledge however I feel it might be import to cover if these stories last past the things we have. So for this chapter I want to begin with the Dummy:_

_These creatures are artificial beings made by Puppet Masters. Best compared to living dolls with doll like joints and replaceable parts. Each can be customized to match the look of a normal person but it is illegal to make them look exactly like another person who the commissioner knows living or dead. Dummies don’t speak and have very limited intelligence, usually made for one purpose or reason. They can be programmed to drive carriages and tend to plants or feed animals however they are not to be used to care for children or the elderly. Dummies do not require food or rest, only the occasional maintenance and tune up. Information on Puppet Masters will be included in the next chapter._

_\--excerpt from ‘As the Gears Turn’--_

“According to the directory we’ll find someone here who can tell us about Ms. Serket’s arm.” Jake pointed from his map to the building in front of them. It wasn’t a very big building, squished between two much nicer looking shops with no space for even a cat to fit between them. It looked as if the place had been squeezed in between the other buildings after the first two had been built. It was narrow and though it looked out out of place.The shop window was dirty and the displays inside looked grimy and dusty. “Cryptic Genesis. That sounds ominous.” Jake frowned a little as he turned to look at the brothers standing behind him.

Dirk had Vriska’s arm in hand and gave a shrug as he moved to the door and headed inside. “Hello?” He called out, Jake following in behind him with Dave bringing up the rear. Inside the shop was even older looking than the outside. Thick dust covered every surface and the walls were lined with shelves which reached to the ceiling. Each shelf had different objects like jars filled with strange substances and rusty old items of unknown origin. In the back was a long glass case, inside were more dusty objects sans one book, the cover was faded and title was impossible to make out but it was rather clean compared to the rest of the shop.

“I feel an allergy storm approaching.” Dave frowned.

“You can wait outside.” Dirk shook his head before reaching out to tap a bell on the glass counter calling out once more for someone to answer.

“Welcome,” a voice spoke from the back area of the store before a robed figure came from the doorway to look at the trio. “You have something for me to look at?”

“Yes.” Dirk unwrapped the arm from the shirt and placed it on the counter. “We took this off of a woman trying to kill our traveling companion here.” Dirk motioned to Jake. “You’re a seer, right?”

“That’s right.” The man looked over the arm with a hum. “I can’t see anything with this however,” he motioned at Jake,” may I see your hand please.” Jake rose an eyebrow and moved closer to hold his hand out for the man to take it. The robed man dug around in his robes for a moment before moving to prick Jake’s finger. Jake let out a sound of pain however the man wouldn’t let Jake go. He pressed Jake’s finger harder to force blood out before wiping it off and spreading it over the palm of his hand.

“Blood seer,” Dirk muttered as Jake put his finger in his mouth.

The man stared at the blood smear in his hand for a few minutes before he finally spoke,” I have no way to tell you want you want to know.” The man rubbed his hand off on his robes before he lowered his hood. He had curly dark brown hair with piercing red eyes. “All I can see in your blood is more of it.” The man pulled a stool up to sit on it. “I need to be paid before I can say more.”

“Here.” Dirk said offering a few bills.

The man took them and inspected them then began to speak, reaching down to pull out the book in the glass case. Opening it up he began to flip the pages over to stop on one faded set of text,” This explains part of what I saw.”

“Pond of blood?” Jake frowned.

“It’s symbolism. The pond has many meanings but the most common is that you or someone very near to you will be hurt badly, and soon. I want to explain that I am in no way a seer of the future, I see things very close in time. So when I say soon I mean soon.”

“How soon?”

“Hours at best.”

“Wait, what?” Jake drew back. “You mean someone is going to die?” Jake’s eyes turned to Dirk and Dave, worried that it might be one of them.

“No. There’s a chance that you or another could be hurt in a significant way. There’s no way to tell what the cause will be. However you need not worry about actual death. If it were a river or sea of blood there would be death.”

“This is why I hate blood seers,” Dave groaned. “I’m going outside.”

“But-” Jake looked to him.

“Excuse me! I have a very sensitive way of seeing things and I take offense that you would dismiss my powers so easily!” The man stood.

“Uh-huh.” Dave waved before leaving and all but slamming the door behind him.

“Our business is done here. Thanks for your time.” Dirk wrapped up the arm again then followed after Dave. Jake stood there, looking between the exit and the robed man.

“Your friends are very rude. Blood seeing is a very specific art that requires intense concentration and honestly-” the man began to rant, adding on about how long he had trained for his skill, how many people see him for advice, and how his predictions were never wrong in any form. After an hour Jake finally managed to escape the man, eyes squinting in the sunlight.

“You made it. I thought I was going to have to go in and save you,” Dirk spoke from Jake’s right, in his hands he had a news paper.

“You could have done so and I would not have complained,” Jake sighed. “He was very upset about the way you left, then he told me about other things he was upset about. I found out his name is Kankri and he has a younger brother who moved to Ferrum Wood and please never leave me with that man ever again.” Jake frowned deeply. Jake was tired and it was barely approaching noon.

“Sorry, I thought you’d just have walked away.” Dirk folded the paper up. “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“There’s something I want to check out.” Dirk shook the paper in his hand a little as he began to walk away. “According to this there’s been a lot of shops have been robbed in the last two days. In the middle of the day, with the shop owner present.”

“So...?”

“It might have something to do with the Gears.”

“What? How? I thought that the Crew took them?”

“They did, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t come into contact with people and the magic rubbed off on them.” Dirk put the folded paper in his pocket. “The Gears are magic in pure form, condensed to small objects to fit into the clocks which worked as a seal to keep them in check. Now that they’re not in the clocks the magic of these gears is starting to slip out.”

“So, you’re not just time agents but magic police too?” Jake rose an eyebrow.

“We are whatever we need to be to stop the future we come from from actually happening.” Dirk looked over at Jake. “What do you expect us to be?”

“I don’t know,” Jake admitted as he looked up at the other. “I just kind of expected you guys to know everything.”

“Ha. That’s rich.” Dirk actually sounded amused. “We don’t know everything, we know the major events and when we need to be there to stop them, but for the most part until those points come up we need to see into every possible ripple to stop it from turning into a tidal wave.”

“Like a butterfly effect?”

“You actually know about that?”

“Well, I do a lot of reading about things, fantasy and the sort.” Jake rolled his hands as they walked toward a small group of people.

“Good on you, but yes. Like a butterfly effect.” Dirk nodded.

“Why would you think that this has anything to do with the Gears though?”

“Because Dave says so.” Dirk looked over the group. “He’s more sensitive to time related magics. One of the shops next to that seer’s place was hit. We asked about it while you were getting drilled and the woman couldn’t explain what happened. She said she saw a blur of color and then all her most expensive jewels were gone.” Dirk moved to walk around the people. “Dave said he felt some kind of time magic going on, something like his, and went ahead to question more shop owners.”

“So what are we doing then?” Jake questioned as they cleared the group and finally came into view of what was going on.

“Breaking up a fight apparently.” Dirk rose an eyebrow as a young man with wild red and black hair was busy with fighting another man.

“Who ya think you are comin’ into my territory, eh?!” The other man shouted, his hair slicked back and white shirt sleeves rolled up. “I told ya once, and I’ll tell you another time for free, fuck off!” he pointed at the other. “Damara don’t wanna see you again. Give it up Rufioh.”

“I don’t care what you say, Cronus. I’m talking to her one way or another. I need some answers from her!” The one named Rufioh shouted before charging at the other man again, knocking him back into a fruit stand, sending produce everywhere in the scuffle.

“Fuck off!” Cronus shouted again as he flipped them around to punch Rufioh in the face. Once blood started to show Dirk stepped in, kicking Cronus back by sinking a foot into his face. Once Cronus was out of the way Dirk looked down at Rufioh to offer him a hand and help him up. “Who the fuck you think you are?!” Cronus shouted as he stood up, rubbing an arm under his nose to clear away blood.

“Just a passerby trying to stop you from making a big mistake.” Dirk pointed to him. “Fist fights are all well and good until you hide a roll of coins in your first. Then it turns illegal and punishable prison sentence because that infers an intent to kill.” Dirk looked bored as he kicked around some fruit. “No need to thank me though.”

“You were packing a roll?! A dirty cheat to the very last. I can’t believe you.” Rufioh glared.

“This ain’t non of your business!” Cronus pointed to Dirk.

“As a citizen I have a duty to stop an unfair fight.” Dirk placed a hand to his chest.

“You want a fair fight? I’ll show you a _fair fight._ ,” Cronus sneered before snapping his fingers. More people gathered to him, looking much like Cronus in their style of clothes. “Get ‘em.” Cronus pointed at Dirk and Rufioh, the men all charging at once.

Dirk didn’t have time to say anything else as he moved carefully, hands in his pockets as he kicked the oncoming men away from him. With no small measure of skill Dirk toed an apple up, using his feet to pop it up higher before he kicked it high and then swung his leg around to kick it hard right into Cronus’ open mouth to stop him from shouting more orders causing Cronus to fall over. While Dirk did this show Rufioh began to throw fists at the men. Catching one fight in his hand to direct the motion of the man and throw him into another. Rufioh ducked down as a fist was swung at his face next causing the man to miss and stumble into another one of his crew.

With Cronus taken care of for now Dirk removed his hands from his pockets in time to catch a man trying to put him into a choke hold. Wrapping his arms backwards around the man’s neck he jumped back to force the man to bend backwards so Dirk could kick another guy in the chest as he rushed at Dirk with a shout. Using this momentum to his advantage Dirk twisted in the other man’s hold before whipping around to grab him around the neck with his legs then flipped the man into the sidewalk with a harsh crack. Once Dirk was on his feet again he caught sight of one more man running at him. Dirk shifted, knocking the man’s hand up slightly before turning to take hold of it then pulled on him while bending forward to flip him over. Keeping hold of an arm Dirk twisted it around before giving the man’s shoulder a hard kick to knock it out of place earning a scream. Moving around he whistled at Rufioh and motioned for his hand. Rufioh complied to the action, taking hold of Dirk’s hand he pulled him around to initiate a kick to one man’s face who was approaching from the left before Dirk used his face as a spring to whip around and kick the other man in the face.

Once the action was done Dirk touched down on the ground again next to Rufioh and looked at Cronus as he finally spit out the apple. “You.” Cronus growled as he pointed at Dirk. “You know what we do to nosey people around here?” he moved quickly, reaching around to behind him and in that instant Jake knew what was going on.

“He’s got a weapon!” Jake dashed forward to grab Dirk and knock him out of the way but the action was too slow and a knife flew across the air before sticking into Jake. All he could focus on was an intense burning pain in his arm as he grabbed Dirk and pulled him down to the ground with him with a groan.

“Idiot!” Dirk shouted as he pushed himself up to check Jake’s newly acquired wound. He didn’t pull the knife out though, instead he looked over as the police finally showed up. Cronus used his cronies as a distraction to escape the fight while Rufioh was arrested and the police moved to Dirk. Dirk dug in his pocket to show his TT badge to avoid getting cuffed, but the officers seemed to care little about his ‘phoney’ badge and ripped him from Jake to put him in cuffs. “Don’t worry guys. You’ll still have your jobs after you realize your mistake. I’m not that petty.”

“Nah but you’re stupid.” Dave spoke up as he arrived at last, going to Jake. “See you later.” Dave gave a wave as he pulled Jake’s sleeve to rip it open to get a better look. “Up you get. Hospital time.” he sounded more irritated than worried about Jake’s injury.

“Shouldn’t we remove it.” Jake swallowed as he looked at his arm, the pointed part of the knife slicking out very painful.

“You’ll start bleeding all over the place. We’ll get you to a doctor first before that. So you don’t bleed to death.” Dave explained and hauled Jake to his feet to drag him down the street. “You’re lucky I saw a clinic on my way to this mess.” It didn’t take them more than five minutes to reach the clinic and they were seen right away.

Jake couldn’t watch as the doctor pulled out the knife and healed the wound using some healing magic and some stitches Jake’s wound was taken care of and the two were back on the street. Jake felt awkward with one sleeve ripped off and the ends bloody. “So do we go see how Dirk is?”

“He’ll be fine.” Dave checked his watch before putting it away. “Let’s go check that store.” he pointed back in the direction the fight had taken place. The pair approached a small older woman as she busied with cleaning up the spilled produce and destroyed displace. “Excuse me ma’am, do you mind answering a few questions for me?” Dave questioned the woman as he pulled out his badge, however it looked different here. Jake tilted his head to the side as he looked it over, it was the same badge case as before but the ID pointed at Dave being a Woodcrest government official rather than the time agent he was. How did Dave do that?

“Of course officer. What can I help with?” the woman looked over Dave.

“The fight that took place, what instigated it?”

“Oh those two are always going at one another.” the old woman waved her hand dismissively. “Rufioh, the young man with the red in his hair, is a kind boy, though a bit mislead at times. He’s in charge of a little group called the Lost Weeaboos whatever that means. They’re usually a good group, helping out and stopping Cronus’ little gang, the Cool Aquadicts from causing too much trouble.”

Dave nodded, pulling out a note book to write the information down. “Where to these groups usually hang out?”

“The Weeaboos call Lazuli here their home. Normally they’re in the trees just outside of the city limit though.” the woman explained. “The other group lives in Lapis though. They only come out on this size because Cronus is infatuated with Damara.”

“Who?”

“A young lady from the far reaches of the Crystal Country. She doesn’t speak the common tongue very well but she’s rather attractive. She and Rufioh were an item for a time after she came here but they recently had some kind of parting. I don’t know the details of that though. I did hear it might have been because Rufioh was being unfaithful. I heard all of this through rumor. So you can take most of that worth a grain of salt.”

“Don’t be so quick to dismiss yourself.” Dave closed his notebook and put it away. “This is all very helpful. I just have one more question, have you been robbed in the last two days?”

“I have.” the woman sighed and touched her face. “Just this morning. Everything was all fine and dandy but right in the middle of a transaction all the money in my register was stolen!”

“Can you tell me all the details, maybe a touch, color, smell?”

“Now that you mention it, I did smell something. It was a sweet smell, some kind of flower I’m not familiar with.” the woman explained.

“Alright, thank you for your time. Sorry to have bothered you.” Dave gave a nod before he walked away, Jake following close behind. When Jake questioned Dave about what was going on he spoke. “All the other shops who’ve been stolen from all mention a smell as well. A flowery smell.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that we’re looking for someone who enjoys smelling sweet. Likely a woman.” Dave looked up and down the street. “There’s no order to the robberies and it’s going to be impossible to catch this person by just looking around. I suspect they have magic close to what mine is.”

“So, then what do we do to catch them?”

“We need a plan and an intensive.” Dave checked his watch.

“You mean we need to set a trap?” Jake questioned.

“That’s right.” Dave looked at Jake. “And you’ve got the connections to help us set it. Can you send a telegraph to daddy?” Dave asked earning a confused look in return.

\+ + +

“Good work you two.” Dirk spoke as he finally arrived where Dave and Jake were waiting in the bank for a return reply from Jake’s father.

“How’d that time thing work for you?” Dave sounded amused.

“I didn’t think it would work everywhere.” Dirk shrugged. “I was a bit distracted with an injured man on my hands.” he motioned at Jake.

“Sorry.” Jake bowed his head slightly. “I thought he’d had a gun or something.”

“Well, he didn’t. At least that blood seer was right. You did get injured didn’t you?” Dirk smirked as he motioned to Jake’s arm. “So now you don’t have to worry about it anymore.” Jake look a moment to look at his arm with a hum before turning his head as an answer came over the telegraph at last. “What’s the plan?”

“The thief is after money. So we’re going to lay out a tasty sum of it and catch them in the act.” Dave explained simply. “Papa English is going to be helping us.”

“Must you keep saying things like that?” Jake frowned before he looked over the note. “He’s sending the message to the head of this bank now to give me two hundred. That should be enough right?”

“Probably more than enough. That old woman who at the fruit store couldn’t have had anything more than ten in her drawer.” Dave shrugged a little watching around the room as people behind began to move. “Looks like the note came.”

“Right.” Jake moved forward to speak with the woman behind the counter. Once Jake had the money he returned to the brothers. “Okay, I’ve got it, now what?”

“Let’s go give it away.” Dirk motioned to be followed. “Make it flashy and get it in the evening paper. Then we’ll wait.”

“So, wait, how are we doing this?”

“We can give the money to an orphanage or something, make it a big deal, and then wait for the thief to roll in.” Dave expanded on the plan.

“What if the thief is a robinhood type?” Jake frowned.

“Reach to the back of your dusty bookshelf for that reference?” Dirk chuckled. “You make a point though, maybe buying something.”

“What about that.” Dave pointed across the way at a bench.

“Um...” Jake looked to Dave with confused eyes.

“People often get acknowledged by the city for donating to City Hall. The mayor would be all too happy to get two hundred and I’m sure if you requested a dedication you’d get it.” Dave explained.

“That wouldn’t work. The money gets delivered first and we have to be near the money to catch the thief.” Dirk shook his head as he thought about things they could do. “We’re assuming we need to catch the thief’s attention.” Dirk finally spoke. “What if they’re already watching shops and places that turn out large sums?” Dirk looked to the others. “A jewel shop or a high end clothing store.”

“The hits are random.” Dave pulled out his notebook to show it to Dirk. “No order.”

Dirk took the notebook and looked over the addresses and shop types carefully. After a minute he passed it back to Dave. He didn’t look like he had any idea of what they could do and that was when Jake spoke up. “There is a pattern.” Jake moved to the sidewalk to point down one side of the street to the next. “The first shop it was a flower shop at the end of the road here. The next was a hat shop on the next street over on the opposing side.” Jake pointed farther out. “The next was a book store on this street in the same position as the hat shop.” Jake explained. “Could I borrow a bit of paper?” He requested to which Dirk pulled out his and passed it to Jake. Jake then began to draw in it, making up three streets worth of lines and shops, marking them off in order. “It’s meant to look random.” Jake showed the note to the brother’s. “Think of each street as the same thing, the lay outs are mostly the same, so when you look at it like that then-”

“The next place to get hit will be a music store.” Dirk looked at the paper.

“Well, we better go. If the thief keeps to the time line they’ll be looking for a window soon and if we want to catch them we need to be there before another customer.” Dave began to walk away to take the lead to the shop in question. “I’m going to say out here.” Dave leaned against the outside wall of the shop while looking over the street.

Dirk and Dave continued inside and spoke with the shop owner. “Hello!” Jake greeted with a wave. “I’m looking into busying an instrument for my friend.” Jake motioned to Dirk. Dirk didn’t respond as he looked along the wall at the instruments with a hum. “I have a lot of money so I don’t mind the price.” Jake pulled out his cash to wave it around a little and that was when everything happened very quickly.

Dirk pulled Jake back out of the way as a loud crashing sound came from the door. The money Jake had been holding was now all over the floor and a young woman in red was being pinned to the floor by Dave. “Not to fast there.” Dave pressed his knee into her shoulder hard. In flash they moved and he had her stuck against the wall next. Another movement and they crashed into a set of drums near the main display and then everything settled. “There you go.” Dave cuffed her and held onto her hands. Dirk moved around Dave to pull the key from his pocket and step away from them, putting the key under his tongue.

The woman in question began to mutter things in a language that Jake couldn’t understand. Was this Damara by any chance? No way. That would be too convenient, right? “Sorry about your shop.” Dirk pulled his badge out to show it to the owner who had started to show a fit about broken instruments.

“Please keep the money.” Jake started to pick it up to give it to the owner. “For the damages.” he offered what he grabbed. The shopkeep settled at the money being given to them and after a minute or so the three men left with the woman heading the group. “Is she who we want?”

“You saw her zipping around and you ask that?” Dave looked at Jake with a tired glance and a shake of his head.

“She’s the one.” Dirk moved around to look at her as she spat more unknown insults at them. “Let’s take her to the police.” Dirk motioned for Dave to follow him and Jake brought up the rear.

The sun began to set on this day and though they had fallen behind the Crew for sure it didn’t seem that Dirk nor Dave was really bothered by that fact. Instead they seemed more interested in what was going on in this town rather than the fact they were missing out on catching the Crew early. Was there a script to how they needed to go from here? Jake couldn’t figure these two out and they weren’t going to answer his questions due to their rules or whatever. So he was stuck with just having to wait and see.

As they got closer to the police station Jake could feel eyes on them. The brothers seemed to notice it as well as they adjusted they way they walked. Dirk fell back to walk with Jake instead. “Be careful.” he muttered into Jake’s ear softly. He moved an arm around him, to outsiders it might have looked somewhat intimate but Dirk continued to speak, barely above a whisper. “I’m going to give you the keys to her cuffs” Dirk explained before he moved his face down to Jake’s neck, slipping the key from his mouth to drop it down Jake’s shirt. This done Dirk stepped back just in time to notice they were surrounded by young men and women dressed in black with white skulls painted to their clothes.

“The Weeaboos right?” Dave questioned.

“We’re just here to get her.” a young man with goggles spoke. In an instant Damara flared up, throwing out angry sounding words, making the young man shrink back. “D-Damara please. We’re trying to help you.” the angry sounding words continued until Rufioh approached from the back of the group. “She’s mad.”

“It’s cool Horuss. Don’t worry about it.” Rufioh gave him a pat on the shoulder.

“Already released you from jail I see?” Dirk spoke up.

“No charges were pressed so I got out.” Rufioh shrugged. “Thanks for the help earlier. I wanna pay you back but I can’t let you take her in.” Rufioh pointed to Damara. “She’s one of ours and we don’t let our own go down.”

“You know she’s been stealing right? Using time magic.” Dave tightened his hold on her. “That’s some pretty intense law breaking.”

“What proof you got? No one’s seen her stealing. You’re working on conjecture and it won’t hold up.” Rufioh folded his arms. “I like you, please don’t make me force you to let her go.”

“Force--” Dave bristled as he tightened his hold on Damara. “Get out of the way.”

“We need to do something with her first. Stand down.” Dirk stepped forward. “This isn’t something you can understand.”

Rufioh let out a sigh and rolled his shoulder. “Sorry about this dude. But like I said, we protect our own.”

“Not of yours!” Damara shouted. “Not with horse face.” he nodded toward Horuss. “I will go. You will mind business.”

“I think you heard the lady.” Dirk shrugged. “It would be rude not to let her do as she wishes.”

“She’s just mad. Damara, please. Let us help you.” Rufioh stepped forward, pressing a hand to his chest. “Trust me.” With that Damara started to speak quickly again and at the end of her rant Rufioh nodded. “Got it.” he sighed and turned to walk away. After a few steps he turned quickly and rushed at Dirk to try and punch him in the face. Dirk leaned back out of the way of the strike.

Rufioh didn’t let up and motioned for the other people he was with to charge for them. Jake rolled up his sleeves to meet with one man as he stepped up to attack them from behind. “I’ll watch your back!” Jake shouted to Dave as he blocked one hit then jabbed out with his fist to hit a woman in the face. “Oh! I’m so sorry are you alright?” Jake covered his mouth with his hands before he was punched in the back of the head.

Dirk was busy fist fighting with Rufioh. The gang leader was light on his feet, almost moving as if he were flying. It made it impossible for Dirk to land a hit so he took up being defensive instead. No one else bothered with Dirk however, leaving him to their leader so instead Dave had to use Damara as an anchor point to fight off people with his legs.

Jake stood back up from being attacked with a shake of his head. It had hurt but Jake had been told once he had a rather thick head. He wondered if it had actually be an insult at the time. He brushed these thoughts aside as he moved in to jump on a man trying to sneak up on Dave. “Go!” Jake called to Dave as he banged the top of the man’s head with his fist, and then suddenly Dave was gone and so was Damara. Jake scanned around them, looking for the pair before spotting them half way down the street. Dave pinning her to the ground again. “Dave!” Jake shouted, elbowing the man he was riding before jumping off to go and help Dave.

As Jake approached Damara had kicked Dave off and vanished. Behind them Jake heard Dirk make a sound of pain. Whipping around Jake saw Dirk doubling over as Damara appeared again with her knee in his stomach. She phased out again from there, vanishing into a blur of red. Dirk started to fall over when Damara showed up again, kicking him from behind to side him flying forward and then she moved again, placing her knee in the right place to come into contact with Dirk’s face. Before this could happen thought Dave appeared and pulled Dirk back to keep him from getting his nose broken. Once Dirk was standing upright again Dave moved for Damara. Both of them turning into blurs in the fading sunlight.

It turned into another burly fight and Jake wondered if this would resolve the same as last time. “What do I do?” Jake questioned Dirk, looking at him as he rubbed his lower back.

“Just protect yourself.” Dirk said before catching Rufioh’s attack from behind to flip him over his shoulder. Rufioh didn’t hit the ground though, instead his feet hit the ground first and he twisted to get free of Dirk. “Come now, we can be friends right?”

“I don’t think so since you won’t let Damara go. It’s too bad, you were alright.” Rufioh jumped to attack Dirk. Dirk readied to counter the move but Rufioh made a detour to attack Jake instead.

Jake hadn’t been expecting the attack and took a punch to the face, causing him to fly back into the road. Dazed, Jake looked up at Rufioh continued his attack. Jake raised his arms up to block the attack but it didn’t look like it would do much good. In a moment Jake felt his body move from the scene. Looking Up Jake locked eyes with Dave as he pulled Jake free of the attack with barely an inch between himself and Rufioh. Jake watched as the time echo of himself turned solid. Dave pulled Jake out of the way, putting him in an alleyway. “What did-?”

“Stay here and try to keep quiet when you throw up.” Dave cut Jake off then let go and left him alone. In a moment Jake felt sick, swaying slightly as he grabbed hold of the wall and bent over to empty his stomach. He was really dizzy suddenly so he took a step back to meet the wall behind him with his back before sliding down.

In the street Dirk was still going at it with Rufioh while the fake of Jake was laying in the street, knocked out and bleeding. Dirk had made a copy of him and it made Jake uneasy. Jake watched from the shadows, biting his lip as he thought about sneaking out to attack back but that was when he felt something drip onto his hand. Looking down at the hand Jake rose an eyebrow at a red blotch. “Blood?” He questioned before he touched his nose and pulled his hand back to look. His nose was bleeding, from the time shift? Dave hadn’t warned about that but he didn’t have time to say anything more than the being sick bit.

As Jake thought about this his face started to hurt as if someone had hit him with a bat or club. It was around the time Jake was questioning what was going on that he heard someone shout from the street. “Dirk, twelve seconds!” Dave called to Dirk from across the street. He had contained Damara again and he looked like hell. His face was bloody and his sunglasses were cracked.

“Fuck it.” Dirk stepped back from Rufioh to snap his fingers causing the Jake double to shatter. Suddenly the pain Jake had been experiencing lessened though an aftermath still burned in the back of his nose.

“Where’d he go?” Rufioh asked.

“Don’t worry about him, worry about me.” Dirk smirked as he began to fizz out then doubled then quadrupled continuing until he was in sixteen parts. All speaking at once. “I gave you a chance to leave. Now I’m going to have to haul you in as well.” the copies of Dirk spoke in such unison that they were one voice, a very loud voice. “Try not to fight back to hard.”

“Oh damn.” Rufioh took a step back and then Dirk moved. Each one took a hit at him before splitting off to take down the others of Rufioh’s gang. Once they were all incapacitated the copies rounded up the gang and started to lead them off. Another Dirk came around to look at Jake.

“You okay?” Dirk asked as he offered a hand to Jake.

“Been better.” Jake took the offered hand with his clean one to use Dirk as an anchor to pull himself up. “What happened?”

“Which part?”

“Me.” he motioned to himself.

“Ah, that was because your splinter stuck around too long. We’ll talk more on it later. For now stick around with me.” Dirk motioned to be followed, as they walked Dirk started showing bruises on his face.

“Your face...” Jake pointed.

“Same thing that happened to you.” Dirk shrugged as they walked into the police station at last. “We’re here to deliver some fugitives.” Dirk announced when the police started to question what was going on. “We have a thief and her compatriots.” Dirk motioned to Damara. “If we can get a cell for her specifically that would help.”

“You don’t have proof she did anything!” Rufioh shouted.

“We’ll work on that, right now we need to detain her.” Dirk pulled out his wallet to show it to the police his ID which had also changed like Dave’s had. “I don’t need to ask again do I?” The officers exchanged glaces before one moved to give them a pair of cells to use. Once the Weaboos were locked up Dave stayed in the cell with Damara and Dirk spoke with the sheriff.

Jake sat with Dirk as the two spoke, listening in and waiting to see if he was needed for anything. “So, what is going on here?” the sheriff questioned.

“The young lady has recently come into contact with an item of some tremendous magic power giving her the power to expand a second into a minute.” Dirk explained smoothly.

“You mean unsanctioned time magic?” The sheriff sat upright.

“That’s about the gist of it.” Dirk nodded. “She’s been the one robbing the stores up and down Main, Midway, and Costal. My partner here was the one to actually pick up on her pattern and called that she would try to hit a music store. And she did.” Dirk nodded to Jake.

“So what should we do about the girl?”

“The man in the cell with her right now is working out how to extract the magic so she can’t do it anymore. The power isn’t her own and not something she gained on purpose. Community service should be enough of a punishment.” Dirk crossed his legs. “That’s an official judgment from the Holy Land by the way.”

“If that’s what the holy land says then that’s what will be done.” the man nodded. “So what about the others?”

“The Weeaboos? Just let them go once the girl is done. They were trying to protect her though they had no idea what was going on.” Dirk shrugged. “They’re pretty harmless, I also heard that they’re generally very helpful around the city so it would be better to let them run free.”

“You’re sure?” Jake asked.

“There are a lot worse people in the world, even if they appear to be punks with no value, they care about their community and that’s what really matters.” Dirk stood. “I’m going to help Dave draw the magic from her. It was a pleasure talking with you.” Dirk nodded to the sheriff then walked away. Jake watched him a moment before he got up slowly to follow him.

“So... what happens now?”

“We draw the magic from her and make our way to the next city.”

“But what about the Crew?”

“They’re already ahead of us and Dave and I know when we need to be there to stop them.” Dirk gave a shrug. “You’re worried about what’s going to happen when you’re with us?”

“Well, if you put yourself in my shoes wouldn’t you worry?” Jake motioned to himself. “You can provide me very little information so I’m working with guesses.” Jake frowned.

“I suppose we could drop some knowledge bombs tonight.” Dirk hummed as he moved a hand from his pocket to tap his lip. “A lot of this involves you so it would be useful to have you know.”

“Wait, what? I thought you couldn’t say anything about the future.”

“When did we say that?”

“When you spoke with my father!”

“Oh, yeah we can’t tell him anything but you’re fine.” Dirk shrugged. “Explaining it is a little annoying here though so let’s just drop the subject and see what we can do about Damara for now.” Dirk motioned for Jake to walk in first. He didn’t move right away though, instead he stared up at Dirk for a moment or two then moved in. “How goes it?” Dirk questioned, spotting Dave leaving the cell with a sigh.

“Not good. She doesn’t want to let the magic go.” Dave crossed his arms. “She’s got some pretty strong affinity for it so I can’t get her to,” Dave cut off and vanished before picking up again form behind the pair,” let go. Fucking sneaky bitch.” Jake blinked a few times as he was faced with Damara standing at the bars, her back pressed into them and hands extended out as if she had been trying to get the keys. “I’m tempted to leave her in those cuffs.”

“Probably shouldn’t though.” Dirk reached over to Jake and began to pat him down. “Where’d I put it again?”

“Let me get it!” Jake pulled away from Dirk to get the key himself but when he reached down to pull his shirt out from his pants to make it drop he realized things were rather breezy. Looking down his found that his pants had been unbuckled and left on the floor while in the cell Damara rubbed her wrists. “What...?”

“She got it herself.” Dave explained. “Nice underpants.” Jake’s face reddened at the backhanded compliment as he reached down to pull his pants back up then move from the cell. “She’s got crazy good control of that magic. If I had to take a guess she set it off pretty badly from her first go. What would have been thirty minutes probably turned into well over a day for her.”

“So she learned to control because she was stuck in a time limbo?” Jake questioned. “Probably. If she keeps this up she’ll be old and gray before the year is over. Your body still ages like it would in normal time but since she slowed time in relation to herself her body still ages as it would have if she was living normally. A days worth of slowed time is the same as a day on her body even if it’s only been an hour for everyone else.”

“Does that hold true for you as well?”

“Yeah. I’m only supposed to be sixteen but I look older because I fuck with time so much.” Dave explained. “I mean, Dirk and I look like teens.” Dave motioned between himself and his brother.

“I did sort of think you were the same age...” Jake said slowly with a hum at the end. “All this fancy-schmancy time business aside, what are we going to do with her?” Jake pointed to Damara.

“Well, a few ideas come to mind, but what we have to do is find a vessel that can hold the magic. Problem is that if we leave her with normal people who can track her movements she’s going to get lose and become hard to find.” Dirk folded his arms. “So that leaves you Dave.”

“Fucking fantastic. I always wanted to spend my time in Lazuli in a jail babysitting some magicked up crazy woman who can’t speak the common tongue,” Dave let out an irritated sigh.

“We’ll find a vessel and come back tomorrow.” Dirk looked to Dave. “You can handle that right?”

“Going to have to,” Dave sighed as he removed his glasses to fix them with a swipe of his hand. “I expect a tremendous amount of AJ in return.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dirk waved his hand then began to leave. “If she get’s lose send a message and we’ll try to meet up to catch her.”

Jake followed Dirk but looked back at Dave with a reassuring smile which was met with a middle finger. “He doesn’t like me does he?”

“He doesn’t really like anyone.” Dirk shrugged. “It’s not your fault. You can always ask him about it. I can’t answer things for him.” Dirk looked over to Jake, moving his head up and down to look him over completely. “You, sir, look like shit.”

“Today has been very long.” Jake gave a nod. “I’m ready to wash up and sleep for a day.”

“Well, we’re going to head back to the hotel. Nothing can be done tonight, tomorrow we’ll go looking for a vessel.” Dirk looked up at the sky while they walked.

“What about Dave? Won’t he get tried?”

“Probably, but he’ll last.” Dirk looked to Jake. “It isn’t like she can use her time magic when she’s sleeping.”

“I suppose.” Jake chewed his lip. “So, what will we be looking for?”

“Dunno.”

“So we’re guessing?”

“Yep.”

“How are you from the future and just... bullshitting everything?”

“I think you’re painting a grander picture of time travel than is fact. We come from a bit in the future yes, but that doesn’t meant we’re a study on it. Most of the time we don’t know where we’re going to end up until it’s decided. Then we get a little file about major events and get shipped off,” Dirk explained. “The only guidance we get is “try not to make yourselves not exist” and “just follow your gut.” A lot of what we do is based on what we think feels right to look into.” Dirk shoved his hands into his pockets.

“So that’s why you both started looking at the paper when we got into the city.”

“Yep.” Dirk nodded. “It’s not a fabulous way to get things rolling but it sure beats not having a clue.”

“What I can gather from what you’ve told me is that I’m important for finding the Gears, and that you two don’t actually know what you’re doing.” Jake frowned deeply, looking very unimpressed with the state of things. “So what _can_ you tell me?”

“I said I’ll spill some beans when we get to the inn, you need to relax a little.” Dirk shook his head while leading the pair of them to the inn once more. After greeting the old woman they made their way upstairs. “Go ahead and get cleaned up,” Dirk dismissed Jake while he picked up the paper from the evening to read it over.

Jake let out a sigh and did as he was told, moving to get washed up and changed into clean clothes. Looking at himself in the mirror he took notice of a bruise of sorts forming against the sides of his nose. It looked as if he’d been actually punched in the face. “The copy was hit,” Jake hummed. He was starting to piece together Dirk’s power but he still needed more information.

“Did you want to wash too?” Jake questioned after he finally left the bathroom.

“I’ll do it after you go to sleep.” Dirk shook his head. He folded the paper in his hands and looked at Jake. “So, what do you want to know?”

“Your powers. The copy of me you made was hit, not me. However I’m seeing a bruise on my face and earlier my nose was bleeding.”

“Well, I explained last night that the copies are as real as me and you. They’re not honest copies though. I was a trying to make it simple by comparing them to dummies last night.” Dirk crossed his legs. “My specialty magic allows for splinters.”

“You said that last night. What do you mean by splinters?”

“Think of it like a piece of wood. A piece that sprinters but won’t break. The wood is still joined together at the base but the top of it is broken into many pieces,” Dirk motioned with his hands as if he was breaking something in half. “So whatever happens to a splinter still effects the base. When the splinter copy of you was hit there was a short time in which the injury the copy received was only on the copy. However the longer that it remained the more of it transferred to you since you’re the base of that splinter.”

“So, when Dave was saying something about twelve seconds that was about me?”

“Yeah. Twelve seconds before the injury transferred to you, mostly because he used his power to move you out of the way. So what would have been over five minutes shortened to about three.” Dirk nodded as he reached forward to pour some tea.

“You made a lot of splinters of yourself in that fight,” Jake began to lead another topic. “So all the injuries those got were transferred to you? And the Dave who was stabbed last night, he would have died if it hadn’t been dismissed?”

“Correct.” Dirk sat back as he sipped his tea. “Like with Dave’s magic mine comes with a cost too. If I’m not careful it can kill me.”

“Both of you have pretty fantastic powers.”

“You do too I’m sure.” Dirk smiled.

“No. I’m only really good at making lights,” Jake muttered a spell while rubbing his fingers into his palm until the light appeared,” and putting them out.” With that he muttered another spell to snuff the light out. “I’ve tried other stuff but I don’t have the same skill my father does or my mother did.”

“I’ve heard things about your father’s powers but not your mother.” Dirk rose an eyebrow with some interest.

“She had a real green thumb. Anything she got her hands on would flourish.” Jake smiled as he looked to the fireplace. The flames reflecting in his glasses as he thought about what to say next. “There’s a rumor that her powers were strong enough to give life even.” His smile faded as he rubbed his hands together. “It’s said that a man came to the city one night begging her to save his brother. She did, but a year later she died. There’s no proof to this and my father dismisses the story but I like to think it’s got some merit. How wondrous would it be that my own mother saved a life at the cost of her own?”

“Sounds pretty fantastical to me.” Dirk nodded.

“Quite,” Jake agreed before he let out a sigh. “So, why do you think I can help with finding the Gears anyway?”

“I’m not sure. Gut feeling I guess?” Dirk mused. “I will give you one bit of information,” Dirk leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees,” you’re supposed to be dead right now.”

“W-what?” Jake sat back.

“You wanted to know why I knocked you out, it was because you would have died. You would have found the Crew’s leader making off with one of the Gears and he would have beaten you then shot you through the heart.” Dirk sat back, tapping the arm of the sofa. “We couldn’t tell your father about any future things because the Crew having the Billiard Gears isn’t what ruins the future, it was your father.”

“What do you mean? How-”

“Unless you trust me I can’t tell you.” Dirk shook his head. “The Crew still can’t be allowed to have those Gears though.”

Jake stared at Dirk, unsure of if he should believe what he was saying or not. The fact he was supposed to be dead was shocking, but what if it was a lie? Dirk seemed trustworthy but to what extent? “This is a lot to take in.”

“I don’t expect you to believe me at face value.” Dirk stood. “I won’t tell you not to tell your father, nor will I demand you not trust him, but have an open mind.”

“Tell me, if I was supposed to die that night then will I be looking over my shoulder for early death for the rest of my life?” Jake questioned swallowing thickly.

“No. The idea of Death being a thing that stalks you seeking your soul is just a story. You only need to watch out for what’s in front of you. Vriska Serket is one of those things.”

“But wouldn’t her being after me be something like Death coming for my soul?”

“No. I don’t know where Vriska came from but she’s a different threat.” Dirk frowned as he moved to the fireplace and looked down. “We’ll figure her out in time.” Dirk turned to look at Jake. “For now you just have to trust me. Can you do that?”

“I barely know you!” Jake stood. “How can I believe you? Just because you come from the future? You already admit you don’t know everything!”

Dirk only smiled a bit at this. “There are a great many things you still don’t know Jake. I can only tell you things as they become relevant or seem important to tell you. I just have to trust that you can accept them. I’m going to wash up.”

Once Dirk was gone Jake defused a little and sat back down, staring at the washroom door. What was this time agent playing at? Jake’s leg bounced as he thought over the information he was given. Dirk expected to believed after such a short time together? This was ridiculous. Jake stood and began to pace the room for a few minutes. He let out a loud sigh and moved to his bag to pull out his personal journal and sit at the writing desk to write:

_Tonight I learned that I am a dead man walking. Perhaps that isn’t the right phrase to use in this situation however I feel it best describes what I’m meant to be. According to Dirk I should have died the night the Crew stole the Gears. He stopped that from happening though. Why? What could I change? He claims my father is the cause of the end of the world. I look at my previous passage and can’t believe how much has changed between then and now._

_What do I do? Should I believe this man? I have a hard time thinking that I should. I should send a letter to my father about this and ask what he thinks. I--_

Jake paused a minute to let the ink cry before flipping the page. However this page had already been written on. He stared at the writing, fine lines and careful loops with a greeting made out for him:

_To my son Jake,_

_How are you? This may come as fantastical and unbelievable, however I am writing to you from the past.I only hope that you will find it when you need it most. I was visited by a man recently who told me a great many things. Things I would have had a hard time believing if not for the proof I found. I cannot give you all the details but this man came from the future. He came to me to save his younger brother who was deathly sick._

_I wonder if this story will be covered up? You father does like to dismiss things that aren’t practical. I’m getting off topic. Forgive me._

_At this time, I shall be dead. I know this because this man has told me. It is a death I am willing to accept if it gives you a future in which you may live. My only regret is that I won’t get to see you grow up. From what I can gather something dangerous is coming to our world and your father means to facilitate it’s arrival with those stupid clocks of his. Please be careful my son. I can only pray you are the kind of man who will hold the value of humanity over the value of personal gain. I love you._

_Your Mother_

The note was too short for Jake’s liking and left more questions than it answered. It seemed too convenient that this letter should appear now. “What am I supposed to do with this?” Jake frowned deeply before he looked over to his bag. He stared at it for a long time before he reached over to pull out the letter meant for Doc Scratch. There was only one reason why his father would send a letter over using a telegraph. It had to be something extremely private and possibly damaging if it were to fall into the wrong hands.

Jake’s leg began to bounce again as he looked at this letter, holding it tight in his hands as he contemplated opening it. If he did he would never be able to give it to Scratch without him knowing that Jake opened it. Jake set the letter down, and stared at it more. His eyes drifted to the words in the journal from his mother. She had died to help a man from the future. Why was he allowed back? None of this made sense. “I have to know.” He muttered before he turned the letter over to open it carefully. Once he got the wax seal to release Jake pulled the letter out to look at it. There wasn’t much to it:

_Scratch,_

_It’s time we come together. Help Jake find the Crew and take back what’s ours. Once we have the pieces back I think it’s high time we all play a game._

_Lord English_

“This does not help,” Jake groaned and slammed his head into the desk. “This isn’t even incriminating. I don’t understand why you need this given as a letter.” Jake turned his head to the side. “I’m just more confused now and I’m going to be in trouble.” He let out a long sigh as he sat there for a while longer. Eventually he decided that he would just go to sleep. Maybe a good night’s rest would help him make sense of anything. There had to be something that would help. Anything. Perhaps he’d have a magical dream which would explain everything nice and neat. Doubtful but he could hope.

Jake pulled away from the desk to collapse into bed with a sigh. “What does he mean play a game? With the Gears? What would that do?” Jake muttered to himself as he hugged the pillow close. “They still have some of the Gears. If the magic from one can give a girl the power to manipulate time around her then what can the rest do?” Jake sat up again as he thought about the Gears and the ‘tale’ each had about them.

Getting up from the best Jake grabbed his story journal to write in it:

_From what I know of the Billiard Gears each has it’s own story and assumed ‘powers’ which I had thought to only be fantasy as each has some odd connection with time. I will start with one and end with the Que Stick._

_One: It is said that the power this Gear holds is a power to move rapidly as if bending time around the person using it. For what I have seen thus far we may have encountered a woman who has this very power. She moves lightening fast as if turning seconds into hours. Another traveling partner can also do such a thing but his seems to be a natural born ability. I can’t be sure._

_Two: The power of this Gear seems silly on the surface, slowing down time for the person using it. However if it is taken another way it could be seen in a way as making a person live longer. Perhaps it isn’t time around them that is shifted but time within them. It can be assumed that someone who has their hands on this could live for far longer than ever intended, making someone who is age forty appear twenty or younger? This is a guess on my part and seems a more useful execution to what the power of ‘slowing time’ could really be._

_Three: This Gear seems a bit hard to understand but many of these will be. Of what I know the gimmick for this is something like knowing the path behind. That’s maybe to broad, knowing more like where someone has been. I don’t have too many ideas of what this could mean though. I’ll have to expand on this later if I have thoughts._

_Four: All I know if this is that the person who holds this has unbelievable luck. Fortunes were supposedly won with this in the possession of my great-great-great-great grandfather. It’s said that any time the clock strikes four that any related to the English bloodline will have more luck than usual in that hour. I haven’t tested this myself but maybe I should._

_Five: This seems to be an opposite to Three. Where Three knows where someone has been, Five knows where someone will be. It is said that a great assassin held this gear in their possession and with it always knew where his marks would be without fail. There’s no end to the assassin’s tale however. It is troubling to think that someone’s future can be followed with such precision. I can only hope that the person who wants me dead doesn’t have access to this Gear._

_Six: Another odd ball, excuse my pun, Gear power. Calling them Gears is odd when they’re balls isn’t it? I digress. This Gears power has something to do with death. I have no clear grasp on this one at all. I think it has something to do with appearing where someone has died? Or perhaps where someone will die. I have no idea how it works. I wish I had more information on this._

_Seven: This is one of the Gears that wasn’t stolen by the Crew but if what Dirk has told me is true I wish that it had been stolen or lost somehow. This Gear is highly dangerous and probably one of the few I have any clear idea of the mechanics of. It has the power to destroy anything without making any effects on timelines. I realize that this seems vague but when one thinks on what it can mean it starts to take shape. Say that a person is responsible for something ground breaking, if that person were to be killed with someone that the Gear had interacted with then they would simply not exist and thus all their work would mean nothing. It could turn a king into a stranger on the throne. This Gear alone could bring down an empire overnight. I only hope that it’s power isn’t used._

_Eight: Another Gear I dread the power of. There isn’t much to explain with this Gear as it is simply said to hold the power of the universe. If the person infused with this power is killed the world itself will end. I hope that this is an exaggeration because I don’t know what would happen if this were to be true._

_Nine: Nine is known to be something of a healer type. It can stitch up wounds without actually being nearby a person. It’s also said to fix time rips. I wonder if someone with Nine in their hands could approach a time duplicate without causing the Black Hole Effect Dave mentioned. I wouldn’t want to test it but it is an interesting thought._

_Ten: An unstable Gear this one is said to transport a person to a random place or time when injured in order to avoid death. I fail to see how this could be helpful however if the person is sent far from their time or home. It seems pretty useless to me._

_Eleven: This one seems simple, teleportation through fire. It seems easy to abuse. I recall a story of a thief having this power. No one could figure out how she carried out her heists until the rumor of her power came into light. Once the rumor spread flames were banned near precious objects and the robberies stopped. Another rumor that the thief had been killed circled at the same time so it’s all just conjecture._

_Twelve: Time warping is what I know of it. Apparently a person can go back in time with it’s power but I think it’s limited to a day or so. I don’t have enough information on this. If going back in time by only so long is true though would it not be dangerous with the Black Hole Effect? Unless the holder also had Nine with them. Something to be thought about._

_Thirteen: Like twelve I have theories but no real information. It’s suggested that this Gear creates a separate space of time, like a time separated room of sorts. For those in the room time stops and so the person inside can bide and wait for the right moment to come about. It could be useful for someone to use if they were waiting for something. If it were able to make suspended space around it then it could maybe be used to halt time on things like bombs or projectiles like bullets._

_Fourteen: This Gear is based somewhat on luck. I think it has something to do with borrowing the power of other Gears in different situations. I can’t recall the story clearly but a gambler of some renown was said to use this power. He would flip coins to get out of trouble with loan sharks and other people. None of it mattered when he flipped a coin that had 14 already on it and so no powers came to him and he ended up dead. It seems like a useless power._

_Fifteen: This one is the last Gear that the Crew missed getting their hands on and is another dangerous one. It seems to work something like ten but instead of it teleporting the person being hurt it teleports the person hurt. Far more useful ability in my mind as you can send away an attacker with a hit. I wonder if the person doing the damage is transported as well though. Something else to think on._

_Cue: The start of the ‘Game’ in Billiards it is thought that the person who has the power of the Cue knows how things will go in all cases. It makes it easy to avoid death and likely yields to a lot of paths to take for favorable outcomes. Out of most of these powers I believe the Cue to be rather powerful. Knowledge is power after all._

_The Stick: The final piece to the set. Calling it a Gear is wrong as in the clocks its used with the pendulum to help move things. If the Cue Stick clock isn’t ticking the rest of the clocks also stop. The Stick is the push which really starts the game. The Cue cannot move without the Stick so the one who controls the Stick controls all the powers at once. I fear what someone controlling the Stick is capable of._

Jake leaned back from his writing, eyes burning and dry as he watched the ink dry. All of this information could be useful if they run into more people using the Gears assumed powers. Jake let out a sigh as he closed the jouranl and fell back in the bed to stare at the ceiling. The days events were easier to sort out now that he had time to think of other things. Everything lead Jake to one final thought. ‘ _I have to see this through._ ’

Removing his glasses Jake set them on the bedside table with the journal before turning over to sleep. Dirk seemed to have crawled into bed at some point while Jake was writing. Did he know what Jake was writing? From what Jake had been told tonight he doubted it, but he would share. It would help.

Jake let out a yawn and pulled his blankets up from under him and quickly fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ideally I will be updating every other Thursday but idk. I'll make an effort for it. Sorry if this sucked.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to make this longer but I feel like this is a good stopping point for now. Went and established some things, worked out others. I don't actually have too many plans for this going into it but I got some good thoughts worked out while I wrote it. So yeah, let me know how you liked it. I thought about doing some illustrations with it but I really don't... draw well...yeah. So if I draw anything I'll post it to my tumblr under the tag atgturn and bury it in memes and shipping things. Have a great day!


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